Hell House: The Art of Esao Andrews
Esao Andrews combines a colorful palette with a Gothic sensibility. Some of his paintings are twists on traditional portraits from earlier epochs akin to the work of Nicola Samorì. Wildly dilapidated and foreboding houses are a recurring motif, and, reminiscent of Shirley Jackson‘s psychological horror stories, depict the inner, psychical falling apart, decay, distortion, and warping. Fairy tales and folklore, including Pinocchio and Thumbelina, loom in the forefront with menacing or perverted appeal. In some works, his vibrant style illustrates the bizarre, the obscene, and aberrations, contrasting atrocious or monstrous things such as a giant, bloated black spider with a symbol of sweetness, purity, and elevation such as a child or an angel. Some of his illustrations are cartoonish, charmingly retro, with a dark, whimsical sense of humor, while others are realistically rendered and Dali-esque, while yet others are macabre and lovelorn, bloody tale-telling depictions.
Tags: (twists on) traditional art, dark, illustrations, innocence/menace, macabre, modern fairy tales, monsteresque, neo-victorian, pop surrealism, portraits, realism, religious imagery, spiders, surreal, symbolism, victorian
Mia Calderone
Ghostly, sinuous, beautifully illustrated apparitions with elongated, eerie, torturously expressive wraith-like hands figure prominently in Mia Calderone‘s exquisite and highly personal ink drawings. Her influences and inspirations include Catholicism, medieval illuminated Bibles, Art Nouveau (particularly Alphonse Mucha and Aubrey Beardsley), and contemporary artists Takato Yamamoto and Laura Laine.
Tags: articulate hands, black and white, dark fairy tales, emotive, exposed anatomy, expressive, femininity, flowers in hair, ghostly, hair, inky, intricate line drawings, neo-victorian, sexuality, twins/doppelgangers/doubles, victorian
Roses and Thorns: The Art of Liza Corbett
Tags: animals, art shows, baroque, bird wings, branches, deer, dolls, fairy tales, flowers, flowers in hair, ghosts, greek mythology, hair, historically inspired, illustrations, intricate line drawings, jeremy hush, little red riding hood, liza corbett, macabre, nature, neo-victorian, red, roses, skulls, soft color, surreal, swan, victorian, wolves
Merve Morkoç
>>Merve Morkoç<<
Tags: anatomical-themed, dollflesh, hair, illustrations, macabre, pop surrealism, portraits, red and white, street art, victorian, vintage
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
Another trailer for Alice: Madness Returns
Here is a trailer, featuring gameplay, for Alice: Madness Returns, which was released earlier this month (making it the fifth and final trailer).
Alice: Madness Returns is released in the U.S. on June 14, and in Europe on June 16, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.
I’m so looking forward to this!
Tags: alice in wonderland, american mcgee, colorful, cute n creepy little creatures, dark fairy tales, dreamscapes, gloomy color schemes, hauntingly beautiful, horror video games, innocence/menace, insane asylum aesthetic, insanity, madness, neo-victorian, psychological horror, surreal, trailers, victorian
Jessica Harrison’s “Breaking” Series
In this series of ceramic sculptures, artist Jessica Harrison undermines and perverts the kitschy sentimentality of porcelain figurines by “breaking” them, casting a macabre twist on the familiar decorative art form. 19th-century ladies with vacantly blithe expressions hold their own severed, gory-edged head in their lap, gaily dangle their bloody eyeballs above them, and with fleshless, skeletal face recline daintily on a chaise longue. I would love to have these doll-sculptures in my home, they are such clever miniature subversions of prim and happy porcelain figurines, having a dimension of interest that the traditional harmlessly sweet figurines never possess.
Tags: blood, ceramics, conceptual, dolls, evisceration, exposed anatomy, figurines, gory, installation art, macabre, porcelain, sculptures, sinister arts and crafts, skeleton, victorian, weird sculptures
Fairy Tale Art by Courtney Brims
Detailed, delicate, and meticulously crafted, the beautiful, gently surreal drawings of Courtney Brims portray twists on fairy tales, featuring maidens entwined and fused with nature. She cites her influences as “Victoriana, ghost stories, old photographs, daydreams and nightmares.”
Tags: alice in wonderland, animals, flowers in hair, illustrations, little red riding hood, modern fairy tales, nature, realism, snow white, soft color, surreal, victorian, woodland creatures, woods
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
Swan Bones Theater: The Art of Kelly Louise Judd
Swan Bones Theater presents: creepy, Victorian-inspired, dark-fairy-tale-like paintings and sketches by Kelly Louise Judd. Thin frail little figures with spindly limbs and dolorous faces peer out at us through the dull dust of age, perfectly framed in their strange, uncanny little portraits and frozen in time. They are entangled in their own massive coils of braided hair, floating in dark staged spaces, watering the mournful desolate landscape with widow’s tears, and lying fallen upon the earthen floor of enchanted or haunted woods. Figures with deer’s heads are either their handmaidens or eerie guards. Crows, wolves, rabbits, owls, swans, and other creatures also have their places. Reminiscent of children’s books illustrations for a bygone era, these dark, austere, compact works have a quiet sense of yesteryear’s tragedy, melodrama, malevolence, and strange, lovely otherworldliness.
Tags: (twists on) traditional art, animals, hair, illustrations, little red riding hood, melancholy, modern fairy tales, neo-victorian, twins/doppelgangers/doubles, victorian, woods
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