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      Candid Murals by Street Artist Escif Cleverly Respond to Political Issues and Current Events

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      Art

      #humor
      #murals
      #public art
      #site-specific
      #street art

      May 13, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      “Espoire” in Lozzi, France. All images © Escif, shared with permission
      Street artist Escif (previously) utilizes muted color palettes and straightforward motifs to convert walls around his home city of Valencia and other locations throughout Europe into perceptive ruminations on capitalism, politics, and society. He paints sparse scenes and objects with ties to their environment and current events, often relying on humor and wit to convey an underlying message. Although the Spanish artist has spent much of the last year in his studio working on drawings with his two-year-old son, some of his more recent artworks include a brick shattering an already damaged window, a military officer armed with a vaccine like a bazooka, and a touching tribute to the late street artist Hyuro, who died last November.
      Escif just completed a series in Corse and is headed to Lithuania and northern Italy in the next few months, which you can follow on Instagram. Shop available prints on his site.

      “Aguja” in Valencia
      A tribute to the late artist Hyuro in Valencia
      “Break” in Charleroi, Belgium
      Left: “Low Cost” in Valencia. Right: “Brote”
      “Underground” in Barcelona

      #humor
      #murals
      #public art
      #site-specific
      #street art

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      Delightful Characters Spring to Life in Hand-Cranked Wooden Automata by Kazuaki Harada

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      Art
      Design

      #automata
      #humor
      #kinetic sculpture
      #toys
      #video
      #wood

      May 12, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      Japanese woodworker Kazuaki Harada (previously) has spent the last few years designing these playful automata that activate with a simple hand-crank. Watch miners work in tandem, a figure cackle with unparalleled enthusiasm, and the devil aggressively play the fiddle, and make sure to turn your volume up, too—Harada often pairs an audio component with the mechanical movements for an additional dose of whimsy. For more of his quirky designs, which include many of the character-based works shown here in addition to more elaborate, abstract pieces, check out his Instagram and YouTube.

      [embedded content]
      

      #automata
      #humor
      #kinetic sculpture
      #toys
      #video
      #wood

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      Ironic Compositions Juxtapose Outlandish Scenarios in Paco Pomet’s New Paintings

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      Art

      #humor
      #oil painting
      #painting
      #satire
      #social commentary
      #surreal

      April 8, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      “The Lesson” (2020), oil on canvas, 130 x 170 centimeters. All images © Paco Pomet, shared with permission
      In Beginnings, Spanish artist Paco Pomet (previously) visualizes a series of jarring and absurd scenarios born out of an equally concerning event. He juxtaposes disparate elements—a mushroom cloud erupting in a classroom, women cavalierly poking at a tabletop sunrise, a mountain range lying on an operating table—in a series of satirical commentaries infused with pop culture references and nods to art history.
      Generally contrasting a black-and-white scene with a recurring, full-color sunrise or sunset, Pomet’s compositions merge time periods and situations to mark the start of a new reality, a broad theme tied to the current moment. “Romanticism with a twist of irony is a very powerful visual engine,” he says about the series.
      If you’re in Santa Monica, Beginnings is on view through May 8 at Richard Heller Gallery. Otherwise, find more of Pomet’s humorous and bizarre compositions on Artsy and Instagram.

      “Little Big Grief” (2020), oil on canvas, 51 1/5 × 66 9/10 inches
      “Hesperides” (2020), oil on canvas, 51 1/5 × 66 9/10 inches
      “Melancholy School” (2020), oil on canvas, 51 1/5 × 59 1/10 inches
      “The Art of Scaling” (2020), oil on canvas, 51 1/5 × 59 1/10 inches
      “Headstrong” (2020), oil on canvas, 23 3/5 × 28 7/10 inches
      “Classicism” (2021), oil on canvas, 60 × 73 inches
      “Das Erhabene Büro (diptych)” (2020), oil on canvas, 59 1/10 × 102 2/5 inches

      #humor
      #oil painting
      #painting
      #satire
      #social commentary
      #surreal

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      An Uncanny Animated Short by Fernando Livschitz Twists Mundane Scenes into Bizarre Alternatives

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      Animation
      Art

      #humor
      #short film
      #surreal
      #video

      April 6, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      [embedded content]
      Argentinian director Fernando Livschitz (previously), who helms Black Sheep Films, is back with a surreal short film that envisions everyday activities and scenes with a slightly unsettling spin. Infused with Livschitz’s distinct penchant for humor and absurdity, “Anywhere Can Happen” is set to a rendition of “What a Wonderful World” by Reuben and the Dark and AG and descends into an uncanny universe of galactic rollercoasters, dimension-traveling trains, and oversized hands keen on manipulating the landscape. Watch the animated short above, and find more of Livschitz’s cleverly bizarre projects on Vimeo and Instagram.

      #humor
      #short film
      #surreal
      #video

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      New Perspective-Bending Collages by Lola Dupré Distort and Reconfigure Pets and Portraits

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      Art
      Photography

      #animals
      #architecture
      #collage
      #humor
      #surreal

      March 19, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      “Cleo” (2020), 8.2 x 11.6 inches. All images © Lola Dupré, shared with permission
      Glasgow-based artist Lola Dupré (previously) continues her practice of slicing and rearranging photographs and art historical works into cleverly surreal collages. Her newest manipulations include a blockheaded Léon Bonnat, an entire row of irresistible puppy eyes, and a twisted rendition of George Stubbs’s “The Kongouro from New Holland.” Dupré’s cat, Charlie, still finds himself as fodder for the unusual works—see two pieces centered on him below—and the artist is currently in the process of creating her 33rd portrait of the orange-and-white feline. Find more of the Dupré’s compositions in the latest issue of Standart Magazine, shop originals and prints on her site, and see the distorted works in person at Portland’s Brassworks Gallery later this year. You also can follow along with the contorted creations on Instagram and Behance.

      “Kayack” (2020), 11.6 x 8.2 inches
      “Roo after Stubbs” (2021), 8.2 x 11.6 inches
      Left: “After Leon Bonnat” (2021), 8.2 x 11.6 inches. Right: “The Community” (2020), 8.2 x 11.6 inches
      “Charlie 32” (2021), 8.2 x 11.6 inches
      “Hardy” (2020), 16.5 x 11.5 inches
      Left: “Cat after Nathaniel Currier” (2021), 8.2 x 11.6 inches. Right: “Rand” (2021), 11.5 x 16.5 inches
      “Charlie 31” (2021), 11.6 x 8.2 inches

      #animals
      #architecture
      #collage
      #humor
      #surreal

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      Busts of Unabashed Women by Gerard Mas Are Sculpted with a Contemporary and Cheeky Twist

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      Art

      #busts
      #humor
      #sculpture

      March 18, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      “Lady of the chewing gum,” polychrome resin. All images © Gerard Mas, shared with permission
      Despite their modest clothing and perfectly plaited hair, the women that artist Gerard Mas sculpts are spirited, brazen, and undeniably shameless. Whether blowing a wad of bubblegum, sporting visible tan lines, or unabashedly digging in their noses, the corset-clad figures are steeped in humor and wit and cast a contemporary light on the long-held conventions of the medium.
      Mas began the ongoing series a few years ago as he ventured into figurative sculpture and struggled with portraying perfection and beauty. He shares:
      This was an impossible job. There was always something that broke that beauty. And a sculpture attempting to speak of beauty with some disproportion or flagrant compositional flaw is pretentious if not ridiculous… I decided to anticipate that failure and deliberately introduce discordant elements that broke that pretended beauty by making our sense of good taste squeak. Let’s say it’s an ode to the impossibility of beauty.
      Based near Barcelona, Mas originally trained as a restorer with a focus on reconstructing floral ornaments in architecture. “In my obsession with contemplating the art of other times, I also realized that our current cultural codes prevent us from contemplating the art of the past without reinventing its meaning. We are subjected to an avalanche of daily images that shapes the way we look,” he says. This experience continues to inform his practice that seamlessly melds traditional techniques—his use of standard materials like marble, alabaster, carved wood, gilding, and polychrome, for example—and contemporary subject matter.
      If you’re in Madrid, you can see Mas’s sculptures at Estampa from April 8 to 11. Otherwise, peruse a larger collection of his figurative works on his site and Instagram. (via The Jealous Curator)

      “Call center lady,” polychrome resin
      “Lady of lloret,” polychrome resin
      “Lady of the chewing gum”
      “Lady of the necklace” (2018), polychrome resin
      “Lady of the cactus” (2019), polychrome alabaster
      “Lady of the collar”
      “Picking nose lady”
      “Lady sticking out tongue” (2007), polychrome alabaster

      #busts
      #humor
      #sculpture

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      Banksy Creates Bob Ross-Dubbed Process Video of New Work Depicting Oscar Wilde Escaping Prison

      by

      
      Art

      #humor
      #Oscar Wilde
      #street art
      #video

      March 4, 2021
      Christopher Jobson

      [embedded content]
      What begins as a soft-spoken clip of America’s most iconic TV painting instructor, Bob Ross from his Joy of Painting show, suddenly shifts into a frenetic and extremely rare behind-the-scenes video of Banksy creating his latest work in Reading, Berkshire. Titled “Create Escape,” the clip was just posted to the artist’s social media channels and depicts the real-time creation of a stenciled artwork of a prisoner escaping the high, red brick walls of HM Prison Reading (formerly known as Reading Gaol). Unlike the bright studio lights that illuminated Ross’s bucolic landscapes, “Create Escape” captures the frantic yet precise execution of a work done in near darkness by an artist completely governed by police response time.
      The expansive and unblemished prison wall was a daring and perfect spot for a Banksy piece. It’s best known for its most famous inmate: Oscar Wilde served two years in the prison from 1895-1897 for the charge of “gross indecency” for being gay. The work is clearly a tribute to the poet, as the escape mechanism appears to be a long strand of paper emerging from a typewriter in place of the usual bed sheets. Wilde recounted aspects of his imprisonment in the poem “The Ballad of Reading Gaol,” which centers largely on the execution of Charles Thomas Wooldridge.

      Still from “Create Escape”
      Still from “Create Escape”
      Still from “Create Escape”
      Still from “Create Escape”

      #humor
      #Oscar Wilde
      #street art
      #video

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      Clothesline Farm Animals Graze the Countryside in Playful Illusions by Helga Stentzel

      by

      
      Art

      #animals
      #clothing
      #cows
      #humor

      February 23, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      “Pegasus.” All images © Helga Stentzel, shared with permission
      Instead of tossing an old pair of pants or T-shirt, Helga Stentzel puts her tired garments out to pasture. So far, the London-based artist has added Pegasus and Smoothie, a pair of clothesline equine and bovine, to her herd of playful interventions hung in bucolic landscapes. Stenzel’s practice, which she terms “household surrealism,” is derived from her childhood in Siberia, where she spent hours surveying her grandmother’s carpet, birch logs, and random objects for recognizable forms, including “a stack of buckets resembling the tower of Pisa,” she tells Colossal.
      Prints of the laundry creatures are available in Stentzel’s shop, and you can follow additions to the drove—the artist currently is creating a few more farm animals while braving the -32 degree weather in Russia—on Instagram, where you’ll also find a variety of quirky food-based characters. (via Laughing Squid)

      “Smoothie”

      #animals
      #clothing
      #cows
      #humor

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