Standard

ARTIST FEATURE // VINCENT VAN GOGH 

‘Sunflowers’ is one of van Gogh’s most recognised paintings, a still life that is captivating and alive with colour. He managed to capture the differing stages of the plants dynamic life cycle, as we see them developing, flowering, and wilting. Tones of lemon and golden yellow are used predominantly throughout the composition, the stems containing strokes of lime and forest green, large parts of the flower earthy ochre, with subtle dabs of red along the edges. A brilliant little splash of blue inside one flower contrasts against the brown and the orange. The layering of paint is sparse in some areas, the impasto heavy in others. The painting seems to spring. The lines of the brush fade off and come back. This is a work of expressionism, not perfectionism, this is a painting, and this is life. 

The Van Gogh Museum provides an awesome interactive website where you can read stories about Vincent, learn about his life and work, and explore his remarkable collection. 

ARTIST FEATURE // GUY YANAI ~ LINES OF PAINT

Guy Yanai uses painterly strokes and geometric compositions to create works that are beautiful, elegant, and identifiable. Yanai has an amazing sense of colour and uses vibrant, daring tones. Rather than blending the paint he uses a flat, striking, and eye-catching palette, often blocking in and emphasising shadows. Yanai paints both the landscape and the figure in his works, but seems also to have a strong affection for the plantscape. 

Jean-Michel Basquiat (b. 1960) was a Neo-expressionist painter who was largely influenced by the graffiti subculture, symbolism, drawing, race and identity. Basquiat stated that his main subject matters were “royalty, heroism and the streets.” Basquiat had an automatised style of painting and this is reinforced through the quote: “I start with a picture and then finish it. I don’t think about art when I’m working. I try to think about life.” 

ARTIST FEATURE // JOAN CORNELLA 

They say that art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable. Testament to this is the curiously disturbing and comedic art of Joan Cornella. You might just laugh, you might just cringe... It’s weird shit! 

ARTIST FEATURE - CRAIG DAMRAUER // ‘New Math’ 

Craig Damrauer is the contemporary artist behind the series New Math, a digital project that ran from 2008-2014, with new content uploaded to a website weekly until 2010. 

New Math is exactly what the title suggests, new word equations that express aspects of the world in which the artist lives. Math, like art, can be simple and complex, rational and irrational. This image represents an equation for the complex problem that is modern art. The work is brilliant in it’s simplicity of the phrase. But, there’s more to this work than what lies on the surface. There’s more to this equation. 

This is some new work inspired by Barbara Kruger’s email aimed at Supreme. I’m not even sure how authentic the email is, but damn it’s good. If you’re not familiar with the email or Supreme’s suing debacle have a read through this article by Complex: http://au.complex.com/style/2013/05/barbara-kruger-responds-to-supremes-lawsuit-a-ridiculous-clusterfk-of-totally-uncool-jokers