“Femme Fatale” at Cella Gallery
Femme Fatale, a show exhibiting the work of over 35 contemporary artists, curated by Nicole Bruckman and Stephanie Chefas, is open at Cella Gallery in Los Angeles from February 25th to March 17th. A sample of the works featured is below.
L’ingenue by Stella Im Hultberg
A Letter to Three Wives by David BrayTags: 1950s, alien beauty, art shows, enlarged eyes, femininity, hauntingly beautiful, innocence/menace, lolita-esque, lolitaism, otherworldly, pop surrealism, queens, realism, religious imagery, retro, sexuality, stella im hultberg, sweet/melancholy
Her Sweet Anatomy: The Art of Fernando Vicente
Tags: 1940s, 1950s, anatomical-themed, biomechanical, conceptual, exposed anatomy, illustrations, pinup, realism, retro
“Bathtub” by M.A.Y.O.
I’m not sure what this short film is about, but I quite like it. Therefore, I’m posting it. I also love the 1960s French song (France Gall’s “Ne dis pas aux copains”) featured in it.
“Bathtub” Short Film from M.A.Y.O. on Vimeo
via Juxtapoz on Facebook
Tags: bathtubs, dollflesh, experimental, red and white, retro, short films, surreal
Neo-Victorianism + Japanese Inspiration + Consumer Whoredom: The Art of Alex Gross
The Victorian era, traditional Japanese art and contemporary Japanese pop culture, super-consumer culture, mid-century America, classic Christian iconography, poster art, ironic/mystical symbolism, and ice cream cones all mix together in Alex Gross’ bright, colorful brand of Pop Surrealism.
Tags: (twists on) traditional art, 1950s, animals, classic hollywood, colorful, consumerism, edo-period japan, geisha-inspired, neo-victorian, nurse, pop surrealism, religious imagery, retro, symbolism, victorian
Sas + Colin: Colin Christian
Colin Christian makes larger-than-life sculptures of space-girls, aliens, and femme fatale creatures, in a style I dub cyber retro-erotic which takes influence from many different subcultures. Statuesque and cast in fiberglass and silicone, these cartoonishly exaggerated, indomitably perfect figures with piercing, gigantic, pellucid eyes, featuring campy titles such as Adventures on Planet Freud and The Callgirl of Cthulhu, are a sort of oddball mixture of his diverse inspirations, including “old sci-fi movies, pinup girls/supermodels, anime,” and “H. P. Lovecraft.” I find some of his work to be not to my taste, bordering on obscene or downright creepy (not to say disturbing), but these pieces below I do like. Also check out Sas’ art in the previous post.
Tags: alien beauty, bizarre, cartoony, cyber aesthetic, distorted bodies, doll-like, enlarged eyes, erotic, fetish, futuristic, life-sized, lolita-esque, monsteresque, pinup, pop surrealism, realism, retro, sci-fi, sculptures, sinister arts and crafts, space girls, strange beauty
Ray Caesar – “A Gentle Kind of Cruelty”
Ray Caesar (see my previous post on him here) is currently exhibiting a solo show at Jonathan LeVine Gallery, entitled A Gentle Kind of Cruelty.
Images from the show below via Blood Milk, Hi-Fructose, and Arrested Motion. I love the beautiful detail shots taken by JL Schnabel of Blood Milk, which show the true marvelousness and beauty of Caesar’s work as it would appear close-up in person.
Tags: 1940s, 1950s, art shows, colorful, cute/creepy little girls, doll-like, dollflesh, femininity, hauntingly beautiful, historically inspired, innocence/menace, interiors, lolita-esque, monsteresque, neo-victorian, pop surrealism, ray caesar, retro, sexuality, victorian
Random image of the day
via silent-musings on tumblrTags: art nudes, bizarre, black and white, monsteresque, retro, sepia, surreal
Portrait of a Criminal
Check out this amazing series of “photographs of commitment” from the archive of the Sydney Justice & Police Museum, posted over on the art blog La boite verte. Beautiful, timeless, and peculiarly expressive, these vintage “mug shots” are just brimming with the individuality and personalities of a motley array of people who passed through Australia’s criminal justice system back in the early part of the 20th century – creating unintentional art – offering up to these fringe subjects a sliver of immortality. I am in love with these.
{via the ever-brilliant Coilhouse blog}
Tags: 1920s, artifacts of the past, expressive, hauntingly beautiful, portraits, quizzical, retro, sepia, vintage
Through a Veil Darkly: the Art of Bernd Preiml
Tags: bernd preiml, conceptual, fashion photography, gloomy color schemes, historically inspired, modern fairy tales, neo-victorian, otherworldly photography, photomanipulation, retro, surreal, victorian
Trailer for “Sanatorium Altrosa”
This is a delightful trailer/short film for Sopor Aeternus & the Ensemble of Shadows‘ remix album Sanatorium Altrosa (Musical Therapy for Spiritual Dysfunction), which came out in 2008. It features the brain behind Sopor, Anna-Varney Cantodea, dancing to aurally enticing clips from the tracks.
Someone once asked me, regarding Anna-Varney, “Why do you like that guy? He’s so freaky.”
Hmm…okay, Anna-Varney Cantodea may be one of the more bizarre-looking artists out there, but I think she has a sort of strange beauty which is exactly her own, and isn’t just conventional beauty dressed up in macabre trimmings; she is able to evoke the deepest recesses of human anguish and horror; and her music is quite different from anything else out there. She is one of the rare musicians whose music actually has influences from what I imagine medieval and Renaissance music to have sounded like, and it has such an old-world, dark romantic vibe, with poetic, exquisitely melodramatic lyrics. Also, she is not “that guy.” She is just Anna-Varney.
And while we’re on the subject, some illuminating quotes by Anna-Varney:
“I grew up in a painfully ‘straight’ environment with straight women and straight men, where there was nothing whatsoever in between. I felt like an alien that had crash-landed on a hostile planet inhabited by carnivorous primates (and as it turned out: I was bloody right).”
“You have to understand that from my point of view it is complete nonsense to write any material in order to help other people. It’s totally pointless, because all I can really do is to write about myself, honestly and to a certain degree even ruthlessly.”
{On the rumor that she is infatuated with Darth Vader…}
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“But seriously, the blame is on some (French, I believe, though I cannot quite remember) independent magazine I did an interview for years ago. They tried to be creative, I suppose, so they closed their questionnaire adding a brief game of ‘making-free-associations’ by throwing this totally clever (ahem) list of words at me. The first concept they came up with was ‘black’…and I immediately was in complete awe of such overwhelming and totally unmatched creativity. ;-)
Now, as a good Goth, what was I supposed to reply? DEATH? Deprrrrrression? DARKNESS, even??? Grrrrrr…please! Give me a break, boys! So, instead, I decided to play clever bitch and gave them Darth Vader as an answer. Unfortunately, I had no idea that this would officially turn me into a Star Wars fan. But that’s what ‘Wank-a-pedia’ now says, so I suppose it must be true then. ;)”“A good album should be (amongst other aspects, that is) kind of like a tombstone…a sepulchre, where a part of the artist lies buried.”
Tags: anna-varney cantodea, dark romantic, insane asylum aesthetic, lovely quotations, neo-victorian, neoclassical music, retro, sopor aeternus & the ensemble of shadows, trailers, victorian mourning
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