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Photography

More Than Human: Striking, Glamorous Portraits of Animals

By Marina Galperina on

Wow, these animals got poise! Check out the photographs of Tim Flach for a monkey giving you a smoldering over-the-should look. Watch an armadillo swagger elegantly along. See a plucked rooster pirouette. Spotted by Fubiz, these glossy, carefully-composed shots show us a side of nature we’re not used to seeing — professionally studio-lit, for one thing. Yes, there’s something quite awkward about the out-of-context, artificial glamor of these animals, but then again, it’s a chance to admire each hair strand on top of this charming creature’s head and every waving tendril on the surface of that funky sea critter’s body. Click through for a selection of our favorite images, and for more gorgeous photos from the same series, pick up a copy of Flach’s new book, More Than Human. … Read More

Photography

Dreamy, Vintage-Style Photos of New York City

By Marina Galperina on

Photographer Peter Liepke creates gritty and dreamy images of New York City that look like immaculate graphite drawings, but are actually platinum/palladium prints. The technique of his Above and Beyond series brings out the ominous texture of the sky, the gloomy, dramatic gradients of the streets, turning the glow of a lone park lamp into some sort of mystical urban lighthouse, as if a storm is brewing just around the corner, a big black cloud is gonna come… We’re getting a little romantic here. Sorry. We’re in Sandy mode. Enjoy the photographs! … Read More

Art

10 Terrifying Artworks We Dare You to Look At

By Marina Galperina on

See, the nice part about Halloween is that those of us with aesthetic sensibilities that lean toward morbid and disgusting can pass unnoticed among the celebrating Internet and IRL masses. We can enjoy Judith Beheading Holofernes in all its neck-gushing glory, and it’s not weird! Bring on the Bosch! Lemme at some Lynch! Where’s that guy that paints in his own blood? Alright. Here’s a little party sampler of highbrow and lowbrow art for you to enjoy. Don’t by shy, and let us know if we missed something even more gruesome or… Read More

Art

Nude Men Throughout Art History at the Leopold Museum [NSFW]

By Marina Galperina on

There’s a controversial new exhibit now on view in Vienna. The museum had to recently censor its ads around the city… just because they feature an artwork by Pierre & Gilles with three fully-frontally nude soccer players encircled by victorious confetti. See, we’re quite accustomed to the female nude in art. But men? Scandal!

Presenting, the Leopold Museum’s Nude Men, an ”unprecedented” and “long overdue exhibition on the diverse and changing depictions of naked men from 1800 to the present.” From the Renaissance’s ripped, pants-less, glassy-eyed slabs of masculine perfection to Bruce Nauman’s ’80s frantic drawings of a semi-transparent, erect male silhouettes in a jagged can-can line, from Paul Cézanne to Andy Warhol to Egon Schiele — the museum’s all-star lineup and a varied body of work explores the changes over time in “the concept of beauty, body image and values” of the male nude. And here they are: All the nudes, none of the fig leafs. … Read More

Art

Yes, We Can Replace Times Square’s Billboards with Art!

By Marina Galperina on

Imagine walking into Times Square and, instead of the familiar onslaught of blinking logos instructing you what to buy and where to put it, you’re looking at pulsating, gorgeous abstractions by Rafaël Rozendaal. The world’s biggest, most famous advertising space has turned into the world’s biggest outdoor museum, for an entire month. Sound crazy?

“At this point, we’re thinking ‘How did we ever think this was crazy!’” Hrag Vartanian tells Flavorwire. It’s been a year since Times Square Art Square project mastermind Justus Bruns brought the idea to New York, and now, with Vartanian as chief curator, a posse of important allies, and a new Kickstarter to boot, the project is closer than ever to becoming a reality. … Read More

Art

10 Great Contemporary Works of Political Art

By Marina Galperina on

Some artists aren’t moved by the beauty around them, their patrons’ sponsorship, or some deep need for catharsis. Some artists operate on a different wavelength, channeling the injustices, imbalances, and harsh realities of their daily lives or the lives of those in need to create their art. That’s not to say these artists are entirely motivated by altruism. Suppose they get self-satisfaction from sticking it to the man, from pointing to the bad guys with a big giant neon sign, from being badasses themselves. Nonetheless, kudos. In the wake of the freshly concluded presidential debates, here are a few recent art projects made with a political message in mind. From the Yes Men to Ai Weiwei to the Guerrilla Girls — these artists employ more tools than one can pick up at the neighborhood art store. Check out their culture-jamming, intervention-throwing, order-disrupting, and trouble-making ways, and see if it inspires you to stand for something. … Read More

Photography

Fascinating Photos of Beauty Queens from Around the World

By Marina Galperina on

For five years, photographer Zed Nelson traveled around the world investigating beauty — “a $160 billion-a-year global industry.” With plastic surgery and beauty pageants simultaneously on the rise everywhere, these shots of pageant winners are just one part of his incredible project Love Me, along with hyperventilating muscle men, beauty advertisements assaulting urban landscapes, and extremely graphic photographs of surgery. But first, look at all the lovely girls — from South Africa to Texas, from Brazilian jails to Moscow’s atomic energy agencies. It’s insightful, mesmerizing and… quite a bit overwhelming, even without the mid-surgery slabs of bleeding skin that can be found in his other work. What do you think? … Read More

Art

Who Was Missing from the ‘ArtReview’ Power 100 List?

By Marina Galperina on

Every year, ArtReview drops its epic list of 100 most important people in the art world, unleashing a rippling media wave of whys, whats, and WTFs. This year, the inclusion of Pussy Riot at #57 — a move that further legitimizes the group as an activist performance art troupe and not just “a punk rock band” — made a few headlines. It also seems that Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek has become the art world’s new darling, crowned at #65, immediately following his provocative key note speech at the Creative Time Summit. And then, of course, there was that collective sigh about how this subjective stacking of curators, dealers, and artists doesn’t really mean anything. Unless, of course, there are glaring gaps. Here, our two cents about who was missing. … Read More

Art

Lisa Anne Auerbach's Awesome, Arty Feminist Sweaters

By Marina Galperina on

Forget binders full of women… The hottest election accessory should be these cozy, subversive art pieces by Los Angeles-based feminist and bike activist artist Lisa Anne Auerbach! Oh. Eh. Sorry that we just did that. Seriously, you can forget the binders, but these sweaters are still awesome. Auerbach, who received an MFA in photography from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, started creating these deliberately provocative pull-over pieces back in 2004, when she no longer had access to her school’s darkroom. “Knitting was a way I could continue to make art,” she told The New York Times last year. “It’s portable and I can do it anywhere. Now that I’m teaching photography at Pomona College, I knit on the train during my commute, and it’s a great way to pass the time in faculty meetings.” Certainly being pro-bike, anti-monogamist, and gleefully atheist aren’t necessary mutually inclusive philosophies, but browse this closet and see which of her incredible statement sweaters matches you. Ride on! … Read More

Photography

Strangely Sexy Photos of Models Writhing Behind Colorful Plastic

By Marina Galperina on

Oh, my. These sleekly built male and female forms appear to be trapped in some sort of shrink-wrap alien goo, something mysterious and neon-rainbow-hued that reminds us a bit of Nickeolodeon Gak. We haven’t quite figured out what’s going on here. In any case, Julien Palast’s SkinDeep series spotted by Juxtapoz is really something. See the models writhe, flex, stretch, and freeze mid-ecstatic growl. Check the classically-influenced poses, unabashed jutting of anonymous chests, abs, pecs, and other various intimate bodily contours, and those blasting, vibrant colors. You don’t have to have a slight tingle of an encasement fetish to appreciate them, but we imagine it would help. … Read More