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Photography

Lauren Poor’s Striking ‘Shrines’ Photos Evoke Girlhood Spirituality

By Judy Berman on

Photographer Lauren Poor’s vibrantly colored artwork taps into a sort of girlhood subconscious, creating a more intense than delicate dream world decked out in feminine ephemera like makeup, flowers, and fairy wings. In her 2012 project Shrines (spotted via Bust), this aesthetic takes on a spiritual bent, placing photos of girls and boys in frilly clothing and surreal face paint inside homemade shrines of cardboard, paint, and candles that evoke the trappings of religions from around the world. Click through to view the series, and visit Poor’s website — as well as Rookie — to see more of her work. … Read More

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Art

‘Sunday Night Movies’: Gorgeous Watercolor Recreations of Iconic Film Scenes

By Jason Diamond on

We get excited whenever something arrives in the office from Drawn and Quarterly, but the latest one held an extra-special surprise: Leanne Shapton’s Sunday Night Movies, a collection of watercolor stills recreating scenes from some of the greatest films ever made. Page after page of monochromatic illustrations make this book a cinephile’s dream — so if you have someone like that in your life, consider it a late addition to our recent list of 2013′s best books to give as gifts. … Read More

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Photography

Thought-Provoking Nude Photos That Challenge Conventional Ideas About Attractiveness [NSFW]

By Judy Berman on

The media would have us believe that “attractive” and “unattractive” are fixed categories, and that all of humanity can be neatly sorted into one or the other. In practice, of course, beauty isn’t even a continuum; it is, as the cliché goes, in the eye of the beholder. And the images we see in mass culture of supposedly attractive people are made-up and coiffed and Photoshopped to the extent that they often barely resemble their subjects. … Read More

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Art

How Ai Weiwei’s Alcatraz Project Changes the Meaning of Prisons as Public Art Sites

By Jason Diamond on

The New York Times makes it seem like a match made in heaven: “Ai Weiwei was one of the most famous prisoners in recent history. Now he’s taking on one of the most infamous prisons of all time” — that prison being Alcatraz, the San Francisco facility that was closed down in 1963 and turned into a famous tourist destination. The piece goes on to report that the renowned Chinese dissident artist chose the location because he is “interested in exploring conditions in which individuals are stripped of basic human rights,” but that Ai is “not thinking about work that will directly connect to my own detention” by the Chinese government in 2011. … Read More

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Art

Remarkable, Intricate Sculptures Made from Candle Wax

By Tom Hawking on

One of the best things about the internet is the fact that it provides a constant showcase for the most weird and wonderful corners of human creativity. Like, for example, these remarkable works by Indonesian artist Ferdi Rizkiyanto, which have been doing the rounds on Tumblr this morning. They’re intricate, evocative sculpture made out of… candle wax. As in, the actual wax running off a lit candle. To be honest, I have no idea how you’d even begin to make something like this, but it’s many kinds of awesome. Click through to check out more pictures. … Read More

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Architecture

Amazing Gingerbread Replicas of Famous Art Museums

By Judy Berman on

He’s done Beatles in burnt toast, Damien Hirst in M&Ms, and Rothko in Rice, but Henry Hargreaves‘ latest juxtaposition of food and art may be his most impressive. Collaborating with stylist Caitlin Levin, the artist has used those most seasonal of ingredients — candy and gingerbread — to recreate some of the world’s most famous art museums, from the Guggenheim to the Louvre. If you’re in Miami for Art Basel later this week, be sure to stop by Dylan’s Candy Bar and see the sculptures in person; if not, these dramatic black-and-white photos (spotted via Neatorama and Junk Culture) seem almost as good — although not nearly as tasty — as the real thing. … Read More

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Photography

Look at These Terrifying Photoshopped Images of Birds With Dog Heads!

By Tyler Coates on

I don’t mean to ruin your Monday after Thanksgiving so quickly, but I couldn’t keep myself from sharing the nightmare-fuel I found thanks to Faith is Torment: DIRDS. That’s DOG BIRDS, and they are simultaneously adorable, hilarious, and terrifying. Whatever anonymous Photoshop master put these together might be a genius… or a psychopath. There’s no real way to tell! Just try not to imagine last week’s Thanksgiving turkey with a pug’s head on it and you’ll probably be fine.  … Read More

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Photography

Impressive Photos of Live Models That Look Like Paintings

By Alison Nastasi on

Los Angeles-based artist Alexa Meade creates living artworks using models that look like paintings. The transformation from three-dimensional person into two-dimensional painting is seamless and seriously impressive. Meade’s colorful photos of graffiti-covered walls jump to life with her painted figures. Other images of a painted person wandering the subway are surreal. Enjoy more of Meade’s photos, which we learned about on My Modern Met, below. … Read More

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Photography

Adorable Photos of Wet Dogs Mid-Bath

By Alison Nastasi on

Bath time for dogs is a vulnerable, humiliating, and messy experience. It’s also a necessary one, and our pet pooches are good sports about the whole thing — usually. Photographer Sophie Gamand, who we first learned about on Design You Trust, captured dogs in mid-bath, and the results of her collaboration with groomer and pet stylist Ruben Santana are adorable and hilarious. The dogs’ knowing expressions and toothy grins admit defeat while expressing defiance. Gamand’s Wet Dog series reveals another layer of the human-animal bond — one with shampoo mohawks and wet fur. … Read More

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