yves’blog

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Haring was a very popular street artist of the 1980’s and his work is still recognisable and well circulated to this day. I have seen a lot of haring’s work before in a more commercial and simplified form with his easily identifiable figures of people and dogs and also his NYC subway advertisement takeovers. In the news of the art world a large mural he had painted on the outside of a museum in Amsterdam had been uncovered from metal cladding and this sparked my interest again.

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I followed this by reading a biography including his early more personal work. It was interesting to see his work depicting human interaction with technology, of the time TV and radio and his clear disagreement with it, with “X” displayed on many of the screens he draws. Either an instruction to stay clear and disbelieve the media that is fed to us, or a comment that it’s all empty Bullsh*t used to control the masses with widespread information and advertisement.

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I was also very surprised and pleased to find so many drawings of gay sex, masturbation and scenes of alien abduction. There are some interesting and questionable images below of men having sex with each other and with dogs? which I don’t understand or necessarily wish to. I especially like the drawing of a UFO destroying a Nuclear power plant with its red laser beam. It’s interesting to see the combination of alien probing combined with Homosexual intercourse, what I think is most likely a comment on the societal view of Gay people at that time. Homophobia translated in a visual context we can understand as Alien; foreign, disbelieved and misunderstood.

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I also really enjoy his coloured illustrations, their so full of life, movement and chaos. Specifically the image of the people drowning in the earths flowing blood which still resonated with todays global issues and climate emergency. He also draws the christian cross upside down which is a symbol of the anti-christ or satan, and beside that a figure which could be the devil with his neck being stretched or cut. He draws images of demonic figures and people in what I assume the pits of hell. while still maintaining his graphic, single-lined style. The three eyed face is great, painted with enamel on metal which I would love to try myself.

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Haring also created a project called “Apocalypse” , In these prints he draws explosions rising high above crowds of people below, combined with satanic iconography. Demonic creatures fill the space among pieces of the human form. chaos of line, colour and pattern explode on the page. Jesus encased by rings. 666 corners a page. Mona Lisa smiles behind an eruption as if she always knew what was to unfold. inexplicable chaos as an apocalypse would be.

“But art is spilling out of its frames into subway graffiti. Will it stop there? Consider an apocalyptic statement: “Nothing is true. Everything is permitted.” – – Hassan i Sabbah. Not to be interpreted as an invitation to all manner of restrained and destructive behavior; that would be a minor episode, which would run its course. Everything is permitted because nothing is true. It is all make-believe, illusion, dream…ART. When art leaves the frame and the written word leaves the page – – not merely the physical frame and page, but the frames and pages of assigned categories – – a basic disruption of reality itself occurs: the literal realization of art.”

Nadia is an American Photographer and Film-maker, her work is unlike any I have ever seen. Pulling from a culture and style reminiscent of the 1960’s-1970’s, she displaces the female model into a world of perfected, polished satire. She distorts the reality of societal pressures and beauty standards to their extreme counterpart with the use of makeup and props; extremely long nails, dark tan, huge wigs, extravagant makeup, masks and even a third breast to portray the extreme eventuality of where a path based solely on the beauty of appearances will lead us.

Her use of lighting is really unique and adds a blinded-by-the-sun feel to all of her work. The gloss/oil of the skin and perfectly composed imperfections of her subjects is intrusive and irreverent in nature; A discomfort we all need to feel.

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“In response to homogenous ideals of beauty I wanted to create a satirical world in which the female inhabitants have pushed their appearances into cartoonish, melodramatic and extreme representations of femininity; yet are still looking to improve themselves even further.”

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Nadia’s work fights against the beauty industries endless campaign with style, a great sense of humour and a genuinely diverse reality of what a woman is. Nude but not an object, displayed with personality and human-ness.

Alex is a self taught illustrator who has gained popularity on instagram with 372k followers. He depicts the human experience through the forms of obscure and surreal , somewhat genderless figures that usually have strangely coloured skin, three fingers or multiple eyes.

His use of pastel colours sets his style aside and his dot-work shading adds a grimy quality to the scenes. Through his abstracted scenes he shows and reflects on a lot of the daily activities we have in common; A fair few talk about technology and the mindless abyss or alternate reality staring into a phone screen can create. the negative mindless chatter or the fantasy of escapism we all take part in daily. I particularly like the drawing below titled “Beer” in which through the pint glass we see the true emotion of a man at the bar, total despair and helplessness submerged and surpassed with alcohol, and outside of that a broken and slumped smile, with a body that seems to be melting around them; a visual representation of feeling drunk. behind him various disturbing characters loom and fight each other, reflecting on societies habit of pub violence.

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Alex does a great job of transcribing what it feels like to be human in todays age, which is such an important gift that art can give and one I aspire to follow in. He also doesn’t shy from making stupid jokes with his art which is something that brings joy and genuine happiness to his audience; Its great to see someone with such a large following stray away from confirming for the sake of audience and big brand names and just having fun with his art.

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David is a highly established American photographer who has been exhibiting work since the 1980’s. He uses well known celebrities as subjects, and crowds the shot with surreal imagery, insane use of colour, overwhelming use of prop and composition and most importantly maintaining humour.

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He brings an unmistakable element of fun and play to what would otherwise be a serious celebrity shoot. I especially love his portraits of Elton John; How he brings in print from its original source with plastic cheetahs and stretches it back onto the piano, The strong vibrancy of the cherries topped with flying bananas say something of sex in the homosexual genre. The shot seems to be caught in a moment of free fall with the piano either sinking into the floor or beginning to take flight with Elton, riding it in a state of ecstasy, brilliant. The second portrait of Elton reminds me somewhat of Matin Parr’s beach series, placing Elton in typical working class holiday scene. The woman’s fluorescent pink skin behind him paired with the large inflatable dolphin speaks a lot of modern society and the gormless and intrusive dog steps towards the audience, not far from resembling Elton himself.

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The Works above are pages from David’s most recent publishings “Lost and Found pt.1” and “Good News pt.2”. His style continues to overwhelm and intrigue with the loose use of historical styling and religious iconography; A nude man in a thorn crown raising a white flag, Jesus showing surrender? placed next to four digitally composed commercial jets, free falling in a plume of white smoke, beautiful and simultaneously tragic. a message of the destruction to the planet that comes from air-travel, or a comment/tribute to the many tragedies that have come from failed/crashing jets in an aesthetic that feels ethereal. A crowded neon bathroom stall with party-goers passed out on the floor, behind them the late Michael Jackson with wings standing on what seems to be a satanic figure with red skin and horns, the graffiti spelling “life, stay brave, forgive, soul”, an image of what appears to be a younger version of Michael perched in front wearing his crown of pop. A crowded luminous image of Nicki Minaj riding a motorcycle is an interesting use of composition with a large imposed male blue hand pointing directly at her breasts, which is then mirrored with a nude glamour girl with her breasts, eyes and lower area blacked out with a modesty banner. Questioning the use of the female form within media and the legislations along with it. The hand brings a sense of male speculation and control into the image. The most interesting of the four, A flooded art gallery, containing the works of the modern artists Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst, and strangely the “body worlds” exhibition in London. The walls of the exhibition have been broken and depleted, Hirst’s shark tank and basket ball have been smashed and drained perhaps this is the reason for the flooding? Is this a comment on the modern art world and the necessary destruction of it? or a dystopian comment of art stranded after a natural disaster? or the pointlessness of art in the worlds demise. Theres also something to be said in this image with the Louis Vuitton bags under the flooded water. I think this comments on the wasteful consumption and ultimately empty value of luxury items; Making a comment on the work of both famous artist’s, rendering their pieces as merely materiel objects for commercial consumption.

http://home.davidlachapelle.com/

Calling himself “The World’s best artist” on his website, I was drawn to Mitch’s overly inflated ego. He separates his digital illustration in to categories like “Arty-farty, Cartoony, Comic book and Cute” which is very uncouth and disagrees with me. Im attracted to his work for its depiction of female sex, satanic imagery and dystopian landscapes. His use of pattern and contrasting colour-shading on the first two images is overwhelming and reminiscent of the traditional tattoo period, which is his main source of attraction. I am always eager to see work that depicts the “dark-side” and he touches on drugs, violence and BDSM. Aside from this there’s a lot about him as an artist that I dislike, most of his work really misses the mark, his style is inconsistent, underperforms when trying to draw realistically, his faces feel off a lot of the time and he heavily relies on exploiting the female form for HIS own profit. A hit and miss artist who’s work feels somewhat flippant and without purpose, and definitely stuck in the ages of female oppression.

https://www.mitchoconnell.com/

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Jules is a french illustrator who’s work focuses around masculinity, violence and adolescence; He has said he likes to raise questions around the relationship young males have with each other, their parents and their surroundings. He was influenced by 90’s game culture, anime and comic books from a young age, these influences can be seen directly in the style and subject of his illustrations. He uses the objects in the scenes to create comic book style frames around the characters, which creates a sense of movement and narrative. His use of bright pastel colours keeps the feeling of youthful innocence intact and I think he captures the essence of suburban boredom perfectly. The characters seem to be caught in a moment of disassociated disscontempt while the days idly pass them by. His work also touches on a sense of distant doom surrounding teen-hood years, an awareness of the destruction and chaos that exists in far-away places beyond the tv screen. I also like his use of shading on minimal cubist objects, simplifying the surroundings into forms of flat space and colour.

https://julesmagistry.tumblr.com/

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