June 2012 Blog Posts (204)

Geography enthusiasts will adore this globe chandelier by Benoit Vieubled. Consisting of 15 recycled Earth spheres, Monde à l’endroit, Monde à l’envers is a creative way to put old items to good use. Vieubled created the 6.5 foot long lighting system by hanging the various globes at different levels to form a spiral of rotating planets. Vieubled says that he tends to "keep only…

In this series Love Letters, photographer Jiang Zhi writes passionate and dramatic visual stories of love that are reminiscent of a bygone era. Using alcohol as a flaming agent, Zhi sets various types of flowers and blossoms on fire and photographs them as they burn. He captures the moments of life that emerge both from the flowers as well as the lively flames of the fire.

Each…

Guess what just popped up in the Netherlands? An awesome 3D street painting of a classic arcade game from the 80's. It's Pac-Man! Leon Keer, the artist that designed the 3D LEGO Terracotta Army for the Sarasota Chalk Festival in Florida, was invited by the owner of…

Seaplanes are the technological advents of yesteryear, but that's only if we're talking about fuel-based transportation devices. Looking to the future, engineers in Finland have developed an electric seaplane that seeks to change the course of aviation design called FlyNano. The aircraft boasts a compact, carbon fiber composite construction that weighs less than about 154 lbs. The one-person vehicle is,…

Copywriter-turned-photographer Marcos Minuchin takes your average action figure and reworks it to cleverly mimic and comment on life in his ongoing project known as The Secret Life of Toys. In the series titled Recession Army, Minuchin uses classic comic book and Star Wars characters to pose as out-of-work veterans. We've seen the work…

Positioned within the city's urban center, the Jingzhou Sports Center in China will not only play host to all sorts of athletic matches, it will serve as a meeting place where visitors can shop, eat, exercise, and hang out at concerts or fairs.

Chinese practice DUO and China National…

In all four years that we've been around, there hasn't been a more celebrated, appreciated or loved photographer on My Modern Met than Steve McCurry. Our first post about his work, called 22 Incredible Photos of Faraway…

In these Textportraits by Ralph Ueltzhoefer, words and images blend together to define complex visual portraits. The Mannheim-based artist uses words randomly selected from the internet to generate portraits of many well-known faces including Barack Obama, Pablo Picasso, and Steve Jobs.

Ueltzhoefer searches the internet and collects biographies, fragments of words and…

There has really never been a better time to be conscious of your environment. Of course, that shouldn't mean having to sacrifice style for sustainability. There are several sites out there that can help you lead an energy-efficient lifestyle without abandoning your penchant for great design. In our next…

Photographer and graphic designer Jon Deboer first became interested in photography through courses he took while studying graphic design. Now, the artist uses his photography knowledge to transform endless black and white tones into powerfully expressive scenes. His series, entitled Digital Noir, evokes a sense of mystery along the dark city streets of Detroit. The black and white…

Though at first glance you'd think you were just looking at a bunch of colorful construction paper pieces neatly arranged on a blank white wall, come a little closer and you might notice a familiar face. Back in 2011, famed shadow artist Kumi Yamashita (who we wrote about here and…

Though we just discovered the incredible work of David Oliveira a few weeks ago, I felt compelled to put up another post after seeing his latest pieces. Currently showing at Galeria 111 in Portugal (until July 31) are some of Oliveria's amazing suspended wire…

London-based artist Claire Brewster uses discarded and out of date maps and atlases to produce these delicate paper cutouts of nature. Each final artwork is pinned directly to the wall and the light that shines through gives each piece a three-dimensional quality.

Her inspiration comes from nature that is present everywhere, even in very urban environments, and she says…

I love building and creating with LEGOs, so I was thrilled to learn about this LEGO exhibit at Reiman Gardens in Ames, Iowa. Included in the gardens are 27 life-sized LEGO sculptures, featuring animals like fox, fish, frogs, rabbits, flowers, butterflies, and more! The complex sculptures were built and installed as a part of Sean Kenney's traveling exhibition, Nature…

Similar to the idea behind the sheet music portraits of Erika Iris Simmons, Barcelona-based visual artist Sergio Albiac takes the written musical compositions of famous classical composers and constructs portraits of each corresponding symphonist out of…

Head to a small suburb in Melbourne, Australia called Fitzroy North and try and figure out which house has a secret. Though not apparent from the street, an Edwardian-style house has a cloud-shaped addition in the back that's as pretty as can be. McBride Charles Ryan Architect created an extruded undulating wall that, in cross-section, resembles the shape of a cloud.…

One of the greatest things about running My Modern Met is forming relationships with artists and watching their careers blossom. Back in May 2011, we first came across the wonderfully whimsical world of Christopher Boffoli or who we dubbed "…

German artist Heike Weber spent two months in Turkey as part of an exchange program in which she became rather familiar with the Middle Eastern culture that is simultaneously modern and traditional. One aspect of the country that stuck with HeikeHeike was her experience at the bazars filled with tourist-attracting oriental rugs known as kilims. Rather than buying some herself, the creative…

Located at Barcelona's Poblenou Cemetery, this magnificent sculpture, titled Kiss of Death (El Petó de la Mort in Catalan and El Beso de la Muerte in Spanish), depicts death (in the form of a winged skeleton) planting a kiss on a young man's forehead. According to the story, in 1930, the Llaudet family was mourning the death of their son and created this…

Ireland-based Polish painter Tomasz Alen Kopera uses basic oils and acrylics on canvas to envelop his audience into an otherworldly realm where the surreal prevails. Like the works of Tomek Sętowski, Kopera employs themes of "magical surrealism" in his paintings, though…