Oil painting of children of different cultures connected by abstract shapes and colors with a line of gold leaf representing the value of life and our link to the future.

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Oh man! I just want to curl up inside one of Will Cotton’s artworks and immerse myself in the sweetness of its surrounds.

Lu Hao is an incredible Chinese artist who paints meticulous and insanely detailed depictions of organized everyday collections in China, like shelves of CDRs, all painted with ink on silk. You won’t believe it even when you see it!

What would you do if you found a RealDoll in someone’s closet? Chances are the person just bought you an extravagant dinner (RealDoll’s start at $6,500), so try not to make too much of a fuss. Photographer Anoush Abrar captures the creepiness of these expensive latex women quite well. Not that it’s hard.

Brooklyn-based artist David Kassan paints such lifelike portraits, they practically leap off the canvas: ‘As an expression of his own calculated observation and visual consumption of surrounding environment, introspective glimpses of reality imbue the art of David Kassan. By immersing himself into his subject matter, Kassan is able to infuse his paiinting with life and realism’.

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Since graduating from art school a year ago, Mikhael Subotzky has taken his native South Africa and the international art world by storm. The twenty-five-year-old has exhibited across his native country, in the Netherlands and Italy, and has even been invited to join Magnum Photo Agency — one of the youngest photographers to be inducted into the venerable photo institution’s ranks. So what’s all the hype about? Subotzky is the real deal, part of the next generation of South African artists who are picking up where their apartheid predecessors left off, tackling the issues of a modern country in transition. From prison conditions to strongholds of racism, Subotzky treats South Africa as the work in progress that it is and somehow helps others find beauty in its imperfections.

Because my main medium is illustration, people often assume that I’m not into paintings. Wrong! I’ve tried painting in past but found that it’s just not my thing. Which means that I have an even higher regard for those who do it well. I’m also addicted to chocolate — not just regular chocolate, but quality chocolate. So when I first saw Will Cotton’s paintings at the Mary Boone Gallery in Chelsea, New York, in 2002, I immediately fell in love with them. They are beautiful, witty, funny and sexy. I want to drown in his enormous landscapes of chocolate, candies and cakes.

Portraiture and realism have always been my cup-of-tea, so to speak. I love realism in artwork. Stephen Earl Rogers is a young British artist who works in realism and is becoming well known for his portraits. He has a unique way of capturing a person’s character and his works are technically stunning with just the right level of realism whilst not trying to be photographic. He has exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London, amongst other places.