More stories

  • in

    Angela Fang Zirbes Evokes Midwest Memories in Black-and-White

    “White Christmas Revised” (2024), acrylic on canvas, 20 x 40 inches. All images © Angela Fang Zirbes, shared with permission

    Angela Fang Zirbes Evokes Midwest Memories in Black-and-White

    September 3, 2024

    Art

    Kate Mothes

    Share

    Pin

    Email

    Bookmark

    While preparing her undergraduate thesis exhibition at Parsons School of Design in 2022, Angela Fang Zirbes craved something different. She was working with traditional brushwork on canvas but was dissatisfied with the technique’s ability to achieve heightened contrast. Incidentally, her pet rabbit of 13 years also died that autumn.

    “She had been with me through some of my most formative years, and her death had a deep impact on me,” Fang Zirbes says. “I began thinking a lot about my upbringing and family history in Iowa, and I started working from a lot of old black-and-white family photographs as well as found imagery from around my hometown.”

    “Summer Birthday Revised” (2024), acrylic on canvas, 30 x 30 inches

    Drawing on the monochrome snapshots, Fang Zirbes began to employ graphite, then later dabbling in airbrush. She says, “The black-and-white style enabled me to reference the aged photographs and learn how to portray light and shadow in a new way.”

    The paint clings to the texture of raw canvas, creating a velvety texture of deep blacks juxtaposed with highly defined, masked edges. “It mirrors the content of my work,” the artist says, “where my compositions are sharp with fear and nervousness but the subjects and settings firstly appear strangely friendly.”

    Fang Zirbes’s process revolves around world-building, connecting references in every composition to her personal history or recurring dreams. “I believe this recurrence has a meaning that is rooted in my childhood memories or calls back to my past and how it impacts me today,” she says. “For example, I was always around rabbits and formed a special affection for them, which explains why I find myself painting rabbits over and over again when thinking about my upbringing.”

    Domestic items like Chinese pickle jars, lamps, couches, or sewing scissors appear within wallpapered rooms that tap into the artist’s home or her grandparents’ house in rural Iowa. “They are a combination of influences from both my American family and my Chinese family, as well as the Midwest which has its own unique culture that has had an effect on me,” she says.

    “Thorns” (2023), acrylic on canvas, 20 x 16 inches

    Fang Zirbes is working toward a solo exhibition scheduled to open in March at Hashimoto Contemporary, which represents in the artist, in New York. “I’m continuing my monochromatic work about my upbringing in Iowa, but I’m introducing a new focus around the supernatural and American theories surrounding ghosts and hauntings. It’s a concept I’ve been researching over this last year and I can’t wait to see it through.”

    Find more on the artist’s Instagram.

    “Goodnight Moon” (2023), acrylic on canvas, 20 x 16 inches

    “Vanity” (2023), acrylic on canvas, 20 x 20 inches

    “Dog on Couch” (2023), acrylic on canvas, 20 x 16 inches

    “Mama’s PaoCai Jar” (2024), acrylic on canvas, 20 x 16 inches

    “Rabbit Vase with Flowers” (2024), acrylic on canvas, 20 x 18 inches

    Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month.

    Hide ads on website and newsletters

    Save your favorite articles

    Get 10% off in the Colossal Shop

    Members-only newsletter

    1% for art supplies in classrooms

    Join us today!

    $7/Month

    $75/Year

    Explore Membership Options More

  • in

    Mystery and Fantasy Veil Black-and-White Illustrations by Artist David Álvarez

    
    Art
    Illustration

    #black and white
    #drawing
    #graphite
    #surreal

    November 1, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    “Pinoccio.” All images © David Álvarez, shared with permission
    Continually fascinated by the potential of the human figure, Mexico-based artist David Álvarez (previously) illustrates richly textured scenes with a dose of fantasy and surrealism: a bird’s perch transfixes a character who’s sprouted a branch nose, a man writhes on the ground as he grows from a gnarled stump, and a Cheshire cat lifts a blanket to unveil a moon hidden beneath. Underlying many of his works is “the expressive force and the gesture of the human body,” Álvarez tells Colossal, themes that are rendered through highlights and dense markings in graphite that add intrigue and mystery to the monochromatic depictions.
    The illustrations shown here are a mix of personal projects and commissions, and “Cage” is slated for the cover of Álvarez’s forthcoming book about overcoming prejudices and stereotypes called Bird Woman. You can follow his black-and-white works on Instagram, and shop sketches, prints, and originals.

    “Monkeys”
    “Metamorpho”
    “Agony”
    Left: “Cage.” Right: “The Collector”
    “Awareness”
    “Cheshire”
    “Mice”

    #black and white
    #drawing
    #graphite
    #surreal

    Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member and support independent arts publishing. Join a community of like-minded readers who are passionate about contemporary art, help support our interview series, gain access to partner discounts, and much more. Join now!

     
    Share this story
      More