The great thing about knowing an artist for a long time is experiencing their development and progression. New York-based Jeffrey Burdian has really developed a strong and refined voice since I first saw the serious work he was beginning to make in 2005, allowing his compositions and choices to be elegantly simple and evocative without over-thinking his concepts.

Burdian turns loaded imagery and mundane materials into intimate personal statements about memory, childhood, suburbia, sexuality, and loneliness.

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Using the intricate and impossibly thin lines of a Micron pen along with sweeping watercolor washes, New York-based artist John Kleckner creates gorgeous pieces inspired by archival prints as well as more contemporary source imagery. The results have a unique mysticism about them, like a dark fairytale told by a latter-day hippie prophet.

Random collaborations always come as a pleasant surprise. This time New York-based graffiti artist KAWS (aka Brian Donnelly) has joined forces with lavish beauty product manufacturer, Kiehl’s, in a bid to raise money for non-profit art initiative RxArt. KAWS’ design adorns an exclusive line of Kiehl’s skin moisturizers, with all proceeds benefiting RxArt’s mission to install art pieces in US hospitals.

I’m loving New York painter Bonnie Durham’s new work. Evoking the long-necked beauties of Mannerists and the highly stylized work of the Surrealists, Durham seems also to have tapped into a strange cross between J.J. Audubon’s spirit and the ghost of an 80s era gutter-punk (think gorgeous birds and drip-painting). Just coming down from the high of yet another solo show, Bonnie is currently gearing up for an inaugural group show next month at the Six by Six Gallery in Manhattan.

These stylish works by New York-based artist, M11X — aka Mikal Hameed — blend his musical history with his creative nature as he ‘calls on us to forget our indivualized nature and relationship with our headphones and demands that we start to share our music as it was meant to be: unplugged and free’. [photos by Alison Zavos]

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As I sit here trying to figure out what exactly to make of the work from New York City-based artist John Hodany, I come across many elements which I’m sure resonate with the day-to-day life of all us city folk. Sushi, yup, had that for dinner last night. Alarm clock, a few hours ago (hit snooze three times). Locks, always. On everything. Pigeons, oh my. It’s all so familiar but ultimately pieced together in a way as to make it feel rather disorientating. That about sums up a typical day in the city, no?

New York artist Leanne Shapton runs J&L Books with photographer Jason Fulford and is the author of the quirky illustration-based book, Was She Pretty?, which was published in 2006.

As part of the Robin Hood Foundation, a charity organization whose mission it is to fight poverty in New York City, Lost At E Minor contributor and in-demand illustrator in her own right, Yuko Shimizu — in collaboration with designer Stefan Sagmeister — recently completed an eleven panel mural at PS96 in The Bronx.

We spoke to Yuko about the project, which took two and a half years to finish, and asked her how she got involved with it in the first place: ‘I had been admiring Stefan Sagmeister’s work and, even more so, his work philosophy, for a long time. So when he got hired to create a mural in a public school library, he thought it should be illustrated. I don’t know how he picked me, but he contacted me to work with him. How can I say no to my hero? Also, after working for a while in the field of art, most of us start thinking, “how can we give back using our skills?” This project gave me a good answer. Often times, a rewarding feeling comes more with charity work than with payment’.

My ex-roommate, better known as the young genius art star James Jean, has his first big solo show opening at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery in Manhattan this weekend. The opening may get crazy packed with all the fans, but I’m sure it will worth a visit.

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Though his colourful murals, installations, and drawings look playful and whimsical, at the heart of Fawad Khan’s work is a dark and complex political struggle with violence and identity that takes place through, on, and in, public vehicles. The New York-based artist was raised in Pakistan and speaks of being ridiculed when he was a child as he boarded a bus in Karachi for being born in Libya. The vehicles Khan renders and replicates are not only symbols of place and authority (the New York City cab and the US mail truck) and gathering places (public buses), but also have become weapons, as the constant news of car bombs reminds us every day.

Admiring the work of New York illustrator Aaron Meshon, you can’t help but start to feel like a happy go lucky little kid. And it’s a safe bet to assume that real kids really dig his stuff as well. His store, a colourful array of lunchboxes, puzzles, and backpacks, makes me miss being ten. But heck, maybe I’ll just buy myself a new lunchbox, anyway.

My brilliantly eccentric and talented neighbour, Nelson Loskamp, is performing his Electric Chaircut and exhibiting some of his artwork as part of a Performance and One Day Exhibition on Wednesday, September 17th at New York’s Fuse Gallery. The night runs from 7 to 10 pm. If you’re in the city, this not to be missed!

For anyone living in the Williamsburg, Brooklyn area, you may already be familiar with Maho Kino’s passel of peanuts engaged in everything from ballet to riding dogs to playing the congas. Kino’s peanuts appear on a range of items including her beautiful etchings and her kitschy tea sets. What’s not to like about these peanuts?

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New York-based artist Xiaoqing Ding’s work draws from traditional Sung Dynasty scroll paintings as well as from more recent forms, her figures looking as much like the cherubic babies in festive Chinese New Year art (known as Nian Hua) as they do the sultry flappers in cigarette ads in 1930s Shanghai. Her images have an ethereal and slyly erotic quality, referencing Chinese mythology, pre-revolution film, and subtly personal narratives.

We caught up with New York-based artist Sam Weber recently to get the inside word on where most of his creativity is unleashed: his studio space. In regards to your workspace, what are the props for your daily inspiration? ‘I wouldn’t say there is anything specific, although I am fairly particular about where I like to work, and what sort of stuff I like to have around me. There are things that I look at often, a book of Max Ernst collages, one on Yoshitaka Amano, and a big stack of clippings from magazines and the Internet that I will periodically leaf through to get inspired’.

‘I do like to work with some music in the background. I don’t really have all that much artwork hanging up, mainly because of scarce wall space. Just having my materials lying around and some drawings underway is usually enough to get me motivated and working. Having a studio is a nice luxury’.

Are you usually working on a series of paintings or illustrations at a time, or do you work on one until it’s finished and then move on?
‘I wish I could work on only one thing at a time, but inevitably projects overlap and I find myself juggling many things at once. It’s unfortunately something that comes with being an illustrator. It’s less frustrating when it comes to my own work, as for the most part a deadline isn’t hanging over my head. I fantasize regularly about one day only working on one picture at a time, from start to finish. C’est la guerre’.

Is there a time of day in your studio when you generally feel most productive and creative?
‘I love early mornings, that is definitely my favourite time to work. I love starting early and getting into a project before the phone starts ringing and other things begin to demand my attention. I used to work a lot at night, but the early morning suits me much better I think’.

What’s your studio missing that it could do with right now?
‘A ping pong table and more plants’.

[photos by Reynard Li]

I was just recently introduced to the work of artist Misaki Kawai. I must say that my interest in her work has since become something of a creative obsession. Her trippy, child-like figures and animals, painted in the most expressive, perfectly satisfying candy colored hues, are more than enough to send me running for the bag of jelly beans and jolly ranchers hidden in my cupboard. In contrast, Kawai’s seemingly straight-forward subject matter set a perfectly tongue in cheek tone. I’d just love to sink my teeth into her perfectly endearing figures and their omnipresent pets. What more can I possibly say about the wonderful work of Misaki Kawai?

New York artist James Jean doesn’t need any introduction. But, just in case you haven’t seen his work yet, take a peek now. And forever be in awe. We caught up with him recently in his studio and asked him about the props for his daily inspiration: ‘Sometimes I’ll have my laptop setup next to my work station so that I can listen to audio books, the radio, or have videos playing in the background. But mostly inspiration comes from books and magazines’.

Are you usually working on a series of paintings or illustrations at a time, or do you work on one until it’s finished and then move on?
‘I have a variety of things happening at the same time. A few projects on the computer and a few paintings on the easel at all times.Since I’m working on my show at Jonathan Levine, I actually have 3 easels and some unfinished pieces hanging up in the garage studio. It’s always nice to have something in progress waiting for a resolution. It’s how I get up in the morning’.

Is there a time of day in your studio when you generally feel most creative?
’10:00am – 10:00pm’.

What’s your studio missing that it could do with right now?
‘A fan. Things can get pretty heated in here’.

Seen any young artists or illustrators lately whose work has floored you?
‘I hired Jared Purrington not long ago to work with me on finishing storyboard for the Prada animated film, Trembled Blossoms. The site doesn’t do justice to his work, but I look forward to seeing great things from him in the future. I always enjoy the work of Jillian Tamaki, Josh Cochran, and Frank Stockton’.

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Brooklyn Illustrator Sam Friedman has the most graceful line quality. In whatever form it takes, from abstract line to bold cursive, it’s this beautiful line quality that is clearly the embodiment of his work. In Friedman’s work, this line is often built up in dense, colorful layers to create the most intense abstract fields, guaranteed make your eyes spin. Punctuated with bold shapes and imagery, with a distinct graffiti influence, Freidman makes it pretty clear that the boundaries for his technique are endless.

The work of Brooklyn artist Cosme Herrera is beautiful, subtle and imbued with a deep sense of meaning. ‘As I constantly question man-made constructs, I search for a universal language’, he says. ‘Through this body of work, I seek to define my own logos. Logos are a system of symbols designed for easy and definite recognition. Using a system of logos, I explore my relationship with wood through metaphors and parables. My use of wood is observant of the information trees contain and communicate. Their rings, like an analogical language, tell the story of the tree’s experience through starvation, growth, long winters and wet springs’. ‘Written language, in contrast to wood grain, is entirely artificial, the relationships that words have to their meanings are assigned arbitrarily. For humans, however, our elected language is very often the primary link between us, allowing for an interconnectedness of our otherwise discrete beings (trees). Exploring various natural, synthetic and man-made woods through my process, I create these works while investigating my own personal and ritualistic relationship with the material. These allegorical images illustrate a symbiotic world where man and tree coexist in peace or chaos with their environment. My narrative explores life and death through the various relationships that men and trees share ecologically, industrially, and spiritually’.

I recently got to see David Byrne’s installation piece, Playing the Building, at the Battery Maritime Building in lower Manhattan. It was opening day, but I got there on the early side, and everything was pretty well organized, so it wasn’t too difficult or slow to get in. The piece is pretty straightforward – it’s an antique organ that is attached to the building via an array of pneumatic and electrical tubes that connects each key to a pipe, pillar, or metal beam. When you depress the keys, they make a percussive, whistling, or vibrating sound depending on what they’re attached to. The building itself was pretty impressive, and it was as breathtaking to see the historical architecture as it was to see a great piece made by the Talking Heads frontman.