Danish photographer Asger Carlsen began his career at 16 when he sold a photo he took of the police yelling at him and his friends for burning a picket fence to the local paper. For the next ten years Asger worked as a crime photographer before moving on to shooting ads for magazines. Then one day while messing around on his computer he created an image of a face with a bunch of eyes that led him to the distorted photographs he has become known for. His eerie and often humorous work makes you question what is human, and has been exhibited and published internationally. (Source: Milene Larsson for Vice)
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Benjamin Bjorklund is a painter based in Uppsala, Sweden.
Spending the majority of his time in Sweden, Ben enjoys a simple life based in a small rustic 19th century wooden farm house shared with his Great Dane and muse, Solomon, and a menagerie of pets including rabbits, guinea pigs, mice and rats.
Finding inspiration in everyday life, Ben regularly seeks to interpret through his paintings the emotions and characters of the beings that surround him. He keeps his compositions and focal points simplistic, ensuring his subjects remain within reach. Subjects such as Solomon, both wild and domestic animals and family members feature predominately, though he also works from old photos and memories as references.
Ben's figurative and portraiture work can, at times, depict scenes bordering on the surreal with characters influenced by those around him existing in various physical or emotional situations. These are usually emphasised through the use of abstracted light and darts of colour. These, Ben refers to as 'happy mistakes' being borne from spontaneous actions and serving to focus the viewer's attention whilst adding to the emotional impact on the viewer.
Blake Paul Neubert is a Colorado artist that focuses of figurative painting. He references themes from his experiences working in the Criminall Justice field with substance abuse and mental illness. He is the Co-Founder of Death of a Coworker.
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Phil Hale was born in 1963 and raised in Kenya and Massachusetts. He was apprenticed to painter Rick Berry when he was sixteen, and moved to London when he was twenty-one. His early career is strongly associated with the books he illustrated for Stephen King. In the 90s he produced work for Warner Bros, Playboy, DC, Sony, Penguin and others. By 1999 he had transitioned to portraiture, and commissions included Muttiah Muralitharan for Lords Cricket Grounds (MCC), Thomas Ades of the National Portrait Gallery, and Tony Blair's official portrait for the Houses of Westminster. His fine art has been show throughout Europe and the US at numerous galleries and institutions. His most recent show was Life Wants to Live at the Jonathan Levine Gallery in NYC. Published collections of his work included Mockingbirds / Relaxeder, Urge Ourselves Under, Record Separator, Empire, and Black Crack.
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Julius Onah is a Nigerian-American filmmaker, who was raised in Arlington, VA and Washington D.C. after having lived in the Philippines, Nigeria, Togo, and the United Kingdom. He currently resides in Los Angeles, CA. In the summer of 2010 he was selected as one of Filmmaker Magazine's 25 New Faces of Independent Film and in 2013 as one of Studio System's 10 Up and Up Feature Directors. Onah's films include "The Girl is in Trouble" with executive producer Spike Lee. He is currently in development on "The God Particle" with producer J.J. Abrams and Paramount Pictures.
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Greg Puciato is most well known for his explosive and unpredictable recorded and live performance work with The Dillinger Escape Plan, the critically acclaimed experimental technical hardcore/metal band that he has been a member of since 2001. Their most recent full length release was 2013's "One of Us is the Killer."
In 2012, he, along with Joshua Eustis (Telefon Tel Aviv, Sons of Magdalene, ex-NIN) and Steve Alexander (former Dillinger and NIN tech) formed The Black Queen, an electronic based art-pop trio. Their first full length "Fever Daydream" is released on January 29th 2016.
Born in Baltimore, MD, Greg currently resides in Los Angeles, CA.
Jesse Draxler is a fine artist, illustrator, art director and designer currently working out of Los Angeles, CA.
His works are representations of the feelings he has been working through all his life. Feelings that arise while confronted with a past that is relatively unknown, a future that seems as daunting and horrifying as it does exciting, and a present in which he often feels stale and out of touch with himself. All with the undercurrent of death forever lurking subtly under the surface of everything he creates.
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A Southern California native, Emilio Villalba received his BFA from the Art Institute of California in 2006, and his MFA in Painting from the Academy of Art University in 2011. He currently lives in San Francisco where he teaches at the Art Institute of California and Cogswell College.
"My portraits are inspired by master works, as well as the contemporary human condition. They explore the dissonance created when the familiar is fractured and distorted by outside influence." - Emilio Villalba
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BRTHR is a director duo, known for their euphoric, speed ramped music videos and creative content.
Tokyo born Alex Lee, and New York native Kyle Wightman became quick friends while attending The School of Visual Arts in NYC, and went on to launch BRTHR in the fall of 2012. Both Alex and Kyle are well versed in the realms of editing, photography and their bold graphic style utilizes VFX frequently.
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"I was born in cozy Madison, WI, but ever since that day I have not set foot on Wisconsin again. In all honesty, I haven’t really been actively avoiding this generous land of cheese and beer. Given the very attractive winters that this icebox of a state has to offer, I was happy that my parents decided to return to Colombia before my first birthday. I spent my first 17 years in Bogotá and after finishing High School I went to New York to study Illustration in SVA. After graduating I worked at Evergreene Painting Studios, a mural painting studio, and at The Studio, an illustration studio where I did animatics, storyboards, print jobs, together with some illustration jobs (paperbacks, jackets, etc). After two years of constant and diligently supervised drawing, I decided to go back home to Colombia and be free to paint full time. What was a hard decision at first, turned into the best career move. I have been able to paint what I love, and be surrounded by friends and family. Today, I am happily married and live with my beautiful wife Claudia in Bogotá who just gave birth to our first baby, Samuel. He quickly became the reason I work." - Nicolas Uribe
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"Love you all! I had a few thoughts for the end of the year.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!" - Yoshino
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Stacy Kranitz's work explores history, representation and otherness within the documentary tradition. She uses both moving and still images to consider social constructs while commenting on this tradition and challenging its boundaries.
Stacy was born in Kentucky. She received her BFA from New York University and her MFA from the University of California, Irvine. Her work has been featured in publications including Adbusters, Elle, Granta, Mother Jones, New York Times Magazine, Oxford American, Rolling Stone, Vice, and Wired. She is represented by Little Big Man Gallery in Los Angeles.
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Alex Kanevsky was born in Russia in 1963. He studied mathematics at Vilnius University in Lithuania before coming to the United States. After his arrival to Philadelphia in 1983 he worked as Russian translator, illustrator at the Psychiatric Nursing Magazine and drew pictures for the telephone book advertisements. After attending PAFA (1989-93) and winning a Pew Fellowship (1997) he devoted himself to painting full time. Alex Kanevsky lives and works in Philadelphia. He has exhibited his work in the United States, Canada, France, Italy, UK and Ireland. His work is represented by Hollis Taggart Gallery in NY and Dolby Chadwick Gallery in San Francisco. He teaches a painting seminar at PAFA.
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Brittany Markert received her B.S. in Mathematics from Santa Clara University in 2010. In 2012 she enrolled in a printing workshop at International Center of Photography and has since been self-taught in traditional darkroom printing.
In-Rooms, her current photography project, began in the winter of 2011. Since 2014 it has taken form as an ongoing narrative documenting a surreal adaptation of her most vibrant thoughts, memories and dreams.
Brittany resides in Brooklyn, NY.
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Nathaniel's paintings are like little ghost stories drawn from a childhood in Appalachia under the strict upbringing of an Apostolic Pentecostal family. His images of people compressed into claustrophobic scenes are anxious and oppressive, with tones of violence just under the surface. Layers of muted colors are scraped and agitated across the surface of otherwise photorealistic paintings, creating anxiety and mystery in the work. Together, Nathaniel's imagery and process create a tense space that is oppressive and claustrophobic.
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"Almost all of my pictures are based in nostalgia, nature, hazy memories and childhood adventures. I live in LA with my winsome wife Jess, our son Golden (an aspiring pro waffle eater), and our brilliant toy poodle Bela." - Graham Dunn
Selected Client List: Elle China, Free People, Heroine Magazine, Mirage Magazine, Old Navy, Stance Socks, Vice Magazine
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Justin Tyler Close born in Ontario, Canada in 1984 is the founder, creative director and editor-in-chief of The Lab Magazine.
He started his career studying film theory and graduated with honors from Vancouver Film School. His most recent feature film "In Their Skin" premiered at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival and was distributed by IFC Films.
Soon after Justin turned to photography and has captured some of the world's most influential artists and entertainers including Marina Abramovic, Bryan Cranston, Lykke Li, Lenny Kravitz, Nas and Carly Rae Jepsen.
Justin is also an artist specializing in photography and has exhibited all over the world in galleries and group shows. He has also curated his own shows with the most recent one "Disconnection" which was a group show at Wilding Cran Gallery in Downtown LA.
Justin's recent commercial project documenting a NASA astronomer for Saucony running shoes was nominated for a Young Directors Award at Cannes Lions Festival in 2015.
Justin is currently living and working in Los Angeles, CA.
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Hueman grew up drawing and painting in Northern California, and received her degree in Design | Media Arts from UCLA in 2008. Whether she is painting delicate visions on canvas, or crushing massive walls with a spray can, she often draws on the human condition to create freestyle mash-ups of the abstract and figurative, and the beautiful and grotesque. She is interested in creating ethereal motion and dimension on otherwise flat, two-dimensional surfaces.
Hueman's work can be seen on walls and in galleries worldwide. Her art has caught the attention of media outlets and publications such as CNN, the History Channel, Complex, Juxtapoz and Hi-Fructose.
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Luke Gilford is a photographer and filmmaker from Santa Cruz, CA and currently based in Venice Beach. Luke graduated from UCLA in 2008 and since then, his photography and films have been exhibited in museums and galleries around the world - including MoMA in New York City and FOAM in Amsterdam.
It was a 4 year long photography project documenting his friend's gender transition that inspired Luke to start telling stories with films. Luke's first film project was directing David Lynch for a dreamlike short for Dom Perignon. Soon after, Luke directed The Future of Flesh, a short featuring Prada's Spring 2014 Spring collection, which included Jane Fonda in its voice over. The project received critical acclaim and led Luke to develop his ideas further, writing and directing his first narrative film, Connected, starring Pamela Anderson and Dree Hemingway (and again featuring Jane Fonda).
Luke's work has been published in The New York Times, Dazed & Confused, V Magazine, and GQ Style.
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Justin Hopkins (b. 1986) grew up in the small town of Mukilteo, Washington. Immersed in the arts early on, Justin began drawing at age six; garnering corporate advertising assignments by the age of fourteen.
After graduating from high school his talent caught the eye of legendary illustrator Charles White III, who hired Justin to work for his Architectural design company Olio Inc.
In the years since Olio Justin has worked as an illustrator, sound designer and composer releasing albums on LA based labels Non-Projects and Geweih Ritual Documents.
Justin currently spends most of his time painting and walking his dog in Brooklyn, NY.
Daniel Segrove is a young emerging mixed media artist from San Francisco, CA and a recent graduate from Academy of Art University in 2014. Segrove's work is about human emotion described by combining the outer physical expression of figures with his inner self expressive abstract marks.
He often works on burnt paper and other fragile surfaces to coincide with the fragile psyche of his figures. Segrove tried to combine many different mediums, artistic techniques, and textures to create a cohesive and unique artwork that the viewer can connect with.
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Isaac Bauman is a cinematographer / director of photography born in Philadelphia, PA and grew up in Palo Alto, California. He went to college at USC for the School of Cinematic Arts Production program, but dropped out halfway because of an opportunity to DP his first full length feature. He's been working professionally since Sept 2009 and has since shot over 80+ music videos, numerous short films / documentaries, commercials... etc.
He's most proud of his work that evokes emotion. His work on Florida Man, Cam Girlz, Delta Spirit and Controller are a few of his personal favorite pieces.
Bauman has also worked with many big name musicians / artists including Drake, Rihanna, Kendrick and Sam Smith. He also worked on Vitalic's Stamina music video which won Best Music Video @ SXSW in 2013.
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Jesse Draxler is a fine artist, illustrator, art director and designer currently working out of Los Angeles, CA.
His works are representations of the feelings he has been working through all his life. Feelings that arise while confronted with a past that is relatively unknown, a future that seems as daunting and horrifying as it does exciting, and a present in which he often feels stale and out of touch with himself. All with the undercurrent of death forever lurking subtly under the surface of everything he creates.
Jesse's client list as an illustrator includes The New York Times and Target. He's also worked with musicians Prince, Chelsea Wolfe, and The Black Queen (feat. members of NIN, Telefon Tel Aviv and Dillinger Escape Plan), and as an art director / collagist he's worked with magazines Dazed & Confused, Dansk, No Tofu... etc.
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Born in Beijing and raised in Singapore, Zhang "zemotion" Jingna is a fashion and beauty photographer currently based in New York. Her works have been seen in international Harper's Bazaar, Elle and Photo Vogue by Vogue Italia; her commercial clients include Mercedes Benz, Montblanc, Lancome, TRESemme, Pond's and Canon.
Imbued with influences from the Pre-Raphaelites, Jingna's photographs are often described as painterly, emotive, and fantastical. She was selected to be part of Vogue Italia's exhibition "A Glimpse at Photo Vogue" in Milan in 2013.
Jingna is currently working on the art book for her personal series, "Motherland Chronicles".
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Michael Donovan is a prolific multi-disciplined creative visionary born in Spokane, WA.
Donovan uses photography, video and a podcast to communicate his interests in the "Two Great Bookends of Life," (sex and death) as well as the exciting content that fills our experience. His irrepressible work trains his eye on spirituality, culture, materialism, youth, aging, objectification, mental health, environmentalism, sexuality, and the confusion and joys we develop from living a life wandering through interesting times. Both humor and drama often set tones for his work.
Michael's visual art uses strong, visceral, raw, bold imagery with dark and moody undertones. His work includes fashion, portrait and "sex pop" to create a body of work that is cinematic art, immediately recognizable, and full of life. Published globally, his work has appeared in Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Elle, Marie Claire, Playboy, L'Officiel, Ginza, Vision and Wonderland. Luxury, fashion and music clients include Givenchy, The Pierre Hotel, Gap, Interscope and Sony.
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John Wentz is a contemporary painter whose process resides in an area between rigid technicality and honest expression. Working within the classical idiom of the human figure, his goal is to reduce and simplify the image to it's core fundamentals: composition, color, and paint application. Paint application and brush strokes are broad and simplified as a means to connect and convey these ideas to the viewer in a way that only painting can.
John was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. His interest in art began at the age of 6 when he first discovered Batman and Spiderman comic books. After years of copying comics panel by panel he worked in the commercial arts as a muralist, billboard creator and freelance illustrator. After learning to paint by doing airbrushed billboards, he decided to pursue Fine Art and work in oils. Since then, he has had 3 solo exhibitions in San Francisco and numerous group exhibitions both nationally and internationally. His works have appeared in many publications and have won multiple awards.
In this episode we discuss...
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Casey Baugh is a New York based painter.
His work can be described as narrative impressionistic realism. Specializing in oil paint and charcoal, he began painting at the age of 13 and began selling professionally at age 17. When he was only 21 years old, Baugh began showing in galleries and after four years of studying with artist Richard Schmid, he had his first solo show at age 25. He has made several television appearances and has been featured on the covers of many publications, including The Artist's Magazine, American Artist's Magazine, and American Art Collector.
Baugh's art has evolved over time to become more narrative. Though still maintaining figures as his prime subject matter, he is telling more stories, and his series and exhibits are becoming more thematic. On a constant quest to push new boundaries, he is persistent in experimenting with his inspirations and artistic translations, pursuing more complicated compositions and achieving grander shows. Experience with electrical engineering as well as video and movie-making has attributed greatly in his use of props, set building, lighting, and translates to the overall harmony of his visual layouts.
In this episode we talk about...
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