Pinar's Blog – January 2013 Archive (67)

Cuban artist Alexandre Arrechea reconfigures the composition of buildings into far more flexible forms in his upcoming public art series known as No Limit. The artist's sculptures reintroduce iconic New York City skyscrapers as retractable, curving, and even wobbly structures. The project is backed by Magnan Metz Gallery, where…

La Chaleur de L’amour & la Beauté des Paroles is an installation by Jad Melki, an Assistant Professor of Journalism and Media Studies at the American University of Beirut, that reflects a very personal experience in the designer's family. In 1974, while Melki's mother was in Sierra Leon, she would write letters filled with affectionate words to the his…

Alice (Alice in Wonderland)

Helsinki-based artist Jirka Väätäinen's Real Life Disney Girls series presents a composite image of what an iconic female character from a Disney animation would look like in real life. Väätäinen's mixed media process involves collecting several images of celebrities and random beautiful women on…

California-based artist Karen Tarlton's colorful paintings whisk us away into her romantic scenes of couples lovingly walking along tree-lined paths. Similar to the technique of painter Leonid Afremov, Tarlton uses a palette knife to produce her stunningly textured creations full of life.…

Distortions of the Past; Collaborations for the Future is a series of geometric collages by Vancouver-based artist Randy Grskovic. The project is a culmination of the artist's intuitive response to found photographs and the distortion of memories captured within each frame. After discovering and collecting his photographic canvases at flea markets and…

Graphic designer David Olenick perfectly illustrates the humor of bad decisions, excuses, and basic human behavior. Olenick's designs are cleverly executed with a handy array of puns and a quirky cast of characters. From a tough guy name badge that reads: "HELLO MY NAME IS: keep walking" to the affectionate T-Rex with his outstretched tiny arms saying "I love you THIS much," the…

Chinese artist Cao Hui challenges conventional perception of inanimate objects by re-imagining their innards as something more than the inorganic materials used to compose their exterior. When fully assembled, the artist's modular sculptures appear to be like any other finely crafted structure, but it's upon dismantling the piece that one notices the insides…

Professional surfer Kelly Slater had always wanted a surf park where he could hone his skills while growing up and though it never came to fruition in his youth, the 11-time world champion is working on one for future surfers, fully equipped with man-made waves. Having just recently unveiled his website for the ambitious project,…

Normally, you wouldn't want to think about germs when you sit down to a meal, but design studio MADLAB brings bacteria right over the dining table with their Bacterioptica chandelier. The suspended light fixture is comprised of 15,000 feet of fiber optic cables connecting a variety of petri dishes. Its modular composition includes hundreds of metal rods, couplings, caps, and canisters,…

Berlin-based street artist Evol playfully transforms city blocks, power boxes, walls, and any other public architecture he comes across into micro cities as part of his ongoing Buildings series. The German artist carefully executes his crafty urban project by using stencils to mimic the gridded windows and balconies that line an apartment building's facade. Essentially, he is building tiny cities…

Cuban artist Jorge López Pardo masterfully illustrates metaphoric scenes about life in graphite on canvas. His portfolio's photorealistic renditions, particularly those found in his series' titled Black Box and Sighting, depict interpretive representations of how the artist sees the world. López Pardo uses a plane as a symbol of the modern man who…

We've seen colorized portraits of popular and historical figures, but Webmaster Dave over at Shorpy.com allows…

Although hover cars don't exist just yet, Air Drive allows us to imagine a future where they line the streets. The photo-manipulated series by French photographer Renaud Marion features some classic automobiles (sans wheels) miraculously hovering in the street. The series depicts a futuristic look at the new millennium from the point of view of a young baby boomer from the mid-20th…

Like his fellow teen photo enthusiasts, Indonesia-based photographer Mikael Aldo has embarked on a 366 Project, requiring him to share a photo everyday for a year. The young photographer, though admittedly new to the artistic realm of photography, manages to visualize his creative imagination. Aldo's emotionally-charged images are as much a learning process as an expressive outlet, giving…

If you thought IKEA furniture was difficult to assemble, designer Rupert McKelvie's aptly titled Missing Pieces table will make you think twice. The UK-based artist's custom creation utilizes puzzle pieces from box sets with an insufficient number of pieces. Instead of getting frustrated with the hours put into piecing each puzzle together, only to find that he's incapable of…

Photographer Mark Laita captures the plentiful patterns and beautifully vibrant colors of marine life that can be found submerged in the oceans in his ongoing series of animal portraits. Following his series Serpentine, which focused on multihued snakes from around the world, Laita has compiled this…

Polish artist Justyna Kopania utilizes her skilled hand at painting to produce stunning portraits of ships at sea. Her Marine paintings series features a beautifully textured collection of oil paintings that make excellent use of color and form. In an age where artists are constantly working with unconventional, found objects to construct their new age "paintings" it can be a…

Georgia-based photographer Taylor Marie McCormick, aka lalasiy, captures and manipulates images to reflect a surreal world one would find themselves entering just as they're falling asleep. Equipped with her Nikon D800, the 19-year-old manages to creatively visualize an alternate universe where jellyfish rain down from…

Paper artist Sarah Trumbauer illustrates and creates original papercuts inspired by fairy tales. Equipped with only a few simple tools (acid-free paper and an X-Acto knife), the artist uses her own designs to meticulously carve out intricate patterns and silhouettes of enchanting scenes that are both familiar and new. The whimsical hand-cut cast of characters include young girls…

The City Series is a collection of wooden sculptures by designer James McNabb that mimics the skyscrapers that make up the New York City skyline. The Philadelphia-based artist uses a band saw to skillfully "sketch" his model metropolises, carving into separate scraps of wood and assembling them together to represent an eclectic mix of buildings.

Initially, the intent behind…