Découverte de Storyboard, projet éditorial signé par Tumblr, qui nous propose une belle vidéo « Coffee Art Portraiture » consacrée à Mike Breach, barrista possédant un talent incroyable pour le Latte Art, cette technique permettant de créer des dessins avec de la mousse de lait sur du café. Plus dans la suite.
Découverte du travail d’Ahn Jun qui nous propose des auto-portraits assez étonnants, dans lesquels l’artiste se prend en photo littéralement au bord du vide. Le résultat donne une série « Self – Portrait » et des clichés intrigants sans retouches, à découvrir sur son portfolio et dans la suite de l’article.
In our latest video we visited the world’s only tintype portrait studio to learn about the process and beauty behind tintype photography
In the first of four videos we premiered at the 99% Conference last week we took a trip to the Mission District in San Francisco, California to talk to Michael Shindler, co-founder of Photobooth. Photobooth serves as both a retail space for classic camera gear, a gallery and most interesting a tintype portrait studio. We talked to Michael about the ins and outs of the tintype process, and the old school methods used to create the stunning portraits.
Also check out the piece about Photobooth at 99% on the conference website.
Portraits of women in the wild offer a striking exploration of femininity and nature
In her new book Rewilding, Cass Bird exuberantly dances around the defining lines of femininity, sexuality and the human connection to nature. Shedding gender definitions, and, at times, their clothes in the hilly countryside of Tennessee, Bird’s models are perfectly atypical. Without commentary, the photos themselves vigorously pose questions of androgyny, leaving the answers up to the viewer.
With the typical charm of Bird’s photos—energetic, young, enigmatic—this collection presents an exceptional set of characters and locations. Cast from friends, colleagues and the streets of New York City, Bird’s subjects are both the definition and antithesis of femininity. The women take their rightful place among the flora of the South, running wild in the outdoors and creating scenarios historically romanticized for men with complete and total ease. This line between the feminine and masculine, the borders set by society defining the place and role of genders, is elegantly smudged by Bird’s portraits, in which those ideas melt away completely.
Though distinctly ambiguous and casual, the photos still maintain the rampant sexual energy present in the subjects’ youth, and each one reveals a little more about the universally attractive cast. Stylistically, the book falls in line with her other work, but the narrative seems unique for Bird and we are truly excited to see what she has up next.
Signed copies of the book and limited edition prints are available from the artist’s website.
The process behind the artist’s large-scale portraits pairing cultural icons
Already a household name in Asia, Korean painter Kim Dong Yoo‘s inaugural U.S. exhibit at NYC’s Hasted Kraeutler gallery aims to introduce the artist to a new, American audience. The self-titled show features a series of large-scale paintings that, from afar, depict a single grand portrait of notables from John F. Kennedy to Michael Jackson. Upon closer inspection, however, one realizes that the work is actually comprised of hundreds of smaller portraits of other, connected figures from Marilyn Monroe to Madonna.
The relationships between his culturally iconic pairings are intriguing. In addition to Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Diana, and Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck; Kim Dong Yoo has coupled Albert Einstein, one of the greatest geniuses of all time, with Marilyn Monroe, one of the greatest beauties of all time. He’s also played upon the religious and pop culture interpretations of the Madonna, and the tension inherent in the legendary relationships between Jacqueline Kennedy and JFK, and JFK and Monroe, to name a few.
Perhaps even more surprising than the dueling portraits, however, is the process behind each piece. While the look is decidedly digital, the work itself is absolutely man-made. Kim Dong Yoo begins each labor-intensive piece by drawing a grid, hanging a tiny photo for reference by his canvas. He then hand paints every tiny portrait—no stencils, stamps or computers involved. It takes him about two days to complete a single half row, wherein each portrait varies just so from the rest, allowing for the larger, composite portrait’s depiction. Kim Dong Yoo began the series in the late nineties, and completes three to five paintings each year. As gallery partner Sarah Hasted notes, “He makes it look easy, but the process is incredibly involved.”
Elements of Kim Dong Yoo’s series call to mind the work of both Andy Warhol and Chuck Close. Also interesting, according to the gallery, is the fact that another artist by the name of Alex Goufeng Cao has recently begun displaying work using the same visual concept, though his pieces are rendered digitally. Hasted Kraeutler notes the similarities bring up questions of derivation and new creation—ongoing issues in the modern art world—but rather than taking legal action, Joseph Kraeutler says, “We just want people to understand the concept began as Kim Dong Yoo’s.”
When Kim Dong Yoo himself is asked what he hopes people will take away from the show, the artist responds: “I find joy in the fact that my work balances both grid-like elements, which call to mind the digital world, and an analogical technique—drawing every pixel by hand. And while these components coexist in my work, I want viewers to also see both the visual and emotional harmony and the competition between the two figures—Marilyn and JFK, for example—in every piece. But, at the same time, the thoughts the viewers have when they see the works will be colored by their own distinctive feelings regarding the format and the personalities involved.”
Kim Dong Yoo is on display at New York’s Hasted Kraeutler through 24 March 2012.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
