John Brosio - 4

"Bride in Headlights"

"The Last Hot Dog"  oil on canvas  24" x30"  2013

"BFF" 27" x 36"  oil on canvas  2012

"Breaking News"  oil on canvas  18" x 24"  2013

"Dinoaurs Eating CEO"  oil on canvas  55" x 60"  2013

It's often hard for me to get back to posting after the holidays. Habits are like flywheels. It doesn't take much effort to keep them going but once they grind to a halt it's a real bitch to get them started up again. Which why I'm thankful that Mr. John Brosio is out there making new paintings for me to get excited about... AGAIN. This is my fourth post of his work (Nov. 2008, Mar. 2010, May 2011). And I really don't have much to add to anything I might have said before. All visual art ought to speak for itself. It's visual after all, and any art that requires explication for appreciation is missing the point if you ask me. John Brosio's work speaks directly to my love of dark narratives with a pitch perfect blending of painterly realism and surrealist fantasy, sci-fi and horror. Throw in a dash of humor and you're off to the races. After all, I would probably fall in love any painting titled "Dinosaurs eating CEO" no matter what it looked like. It helps that it looks looks as good as its title.
you can see more at www.johnbrosio.com
or get the latest at his Facebook page.

Julie Heffernan

"Self Portrait as the Thief Who Was Saved",  2011-12 / oil on canvas / 84 X 112 inches

"Self Portrait Cleaning House",  2012 / oil on canvas / 60 X 68 inches

"Tree House" 2011 / oil on canvas / 64 x 60 inches

"Self Portrait in Overheated Eden"  2013, oil on canvas, 68 x 52 inches

"Self-Portrait with Falling Sky", 2011  Oil on canvas  68 x 60 inches

Sometimes I come across an artist whose work I've seen before and loved, and then suddenly I wonder, "wait, why haven't I posted this artist before?" and for the life of me I have no answer. But better late than never. Julie Heffernan's work is both personal and mythic. Steeped in the imagery of her catholic upbringing and the great painters of the renaissance she reiterates themes and stories in a seemingly allegorical or symbolic brew. But the symbols are not overt. They're not like hidden clues she's planted there for you to find. She's trying to find them herself in the very act of painting. She describes her process as a kind of weaving of abstract elements until forms and figures begin to appear, foreground and background pushing and pulling against each other until the essential structure of the work is established, at which point she fine tunes the details bringing it to vivid life. The process reminds me of Michelangelo discovering his statues within the marble, or how writers of fiction describe their wonder at watching what their characters do next. The creative process flows from within in ways that cannot be, or ought not to be, consciously controlled. It's instinctive, a part of our unique evolutionary inheritance, the part that makes us humans rather than naked apes. Whether we're making tools or music, telling stories or painting, it is a peculiar human instinct that shuts down the conscious mind blinding us the outside world while we weave another. The results may seem like magic to those who haven't honed the skill. Julie Heffernan has, and she produces wonders.

You can see her work at the following galleries and their websites:
Mark Moore Gallery in New York
Catharine Clark Gallery in San Francisco
PPOW Gallery in Los Angeles

And theres's a nice fairly recent interview with the artist on the site hyperallergic.

Eric Stotik

Untitled - Continuous Series - installation view - acrylic on paper - 5' x 45' - 2013

Untitled - Continuous Series - partial montage - acrylic on paper - 5' x 45' - 2013

Untitled - Continuous Series - detail - acrylic on paper - 5' x 45' - 2013

Untitled - Continuous Series - detail - acrylic on paper - 5' x 45' - 2013

"Quetzalcoatl"  acrylic on paper  60" x 40"  2013

"Untitled" (bird, octopus, horn)  acrylic on marbled book endpaper
26" x 20" 2013

Eric Stotik's most recent show of work is dominated by a single piece that he worked on for the last two years. It's a continuous series of paintings on paper. And by continuous, I mean infinitely so, for one end is congruent with the other. You could hang the piece in a circle and then stand in the center  slowly turning round and round trying to take it all in. However, one thing I can guarantee is that you would not be able to take it all in after just one complete turn. The piece is so full of uncanny details and unpredictable subtleties that repeat viewings are practically demanded by it. There is a clear overarching theme of human horror. but the horror is leavened by it's peculiar surrealism so that the viewer is inexorably drawn into the world it creates even while being repulsed by it. Some visual elements repeat here and there riffing off each other; for example, a series of pits and mines (one of the smallest of these seems to glow from within suggesting a literal mouth into hell). Overall the piece is defined by the artist's unique visionary detail but here and there the detail fails to resolve, as in a small odd cylindrical shape emerging from the heart and between the fingers of a woman. Is it a cigarette? An arrow shaft? There a drips of what might well be blood descending from it. The answer could be both or neither. Most of the faces are rendered in the artist's typically detail obsessed manner depicting every wrinkle and fold of skin, but one is a soft focus mask of dark patches which only suggest eyes, nose and mouth. Not far from this cryptic figure a woman holds what at first appears to be some kind of cylindrical box, but on closer inspection the shape merely defines an area in which the painting remains unfinished, revealing the sketch and under-painting of the artist's process. What does it all mean? It's best not to ask such questions too rigorously, for the work as a whole is a riff, a piece of constant improvisational invention swirling around the artist's morbid preoccupations and predilections. You have to start by letting the whole thing wash over you. Then you can zoom in and fascinate over the pieces then zoom out again only to be sucked back in by another detail. All I can say is that if you happen to be in Portland Oregon this month, go see it. And make sure you have some time, or better yet go see it several times. You won't be sorry. And while this enormous piece of artwork will no doubt occupy much of your attention it is important to note that some of the other pieces in the show display the artists obsessions and obsessive attention to detail with equally beguiling results.
The work is on display at Laura Russo Gallery through September 28. More of Eric's work can be seen on the gallery's website.

Michiko Itatani

"Cosmic Wanderlust" painting from CTRL-Home/Echo CRH-11 2012 78" x 96" oil on canvas

"Cosmic Wanderlust" painting from Cosmic Theater CWC-9 2011 78" x 96" oil on canvas

"Cosmic Wanderlust" painting from HyperBaroque CWH-1, 2012 60"x72" oil on canvas

"Cosmic Wanderlust" painting from Cosmic Theater CWC-178" x 96", 2010, oil on canvas

"Cosmic Wanderlust" painting from Cosmic Theater CWC-52010, 96"x78", oil on canvas

Trying to review these paintings by looking at tiny online images (most of these originals are eight feet wide by six and a half feet tall!) is probably a bit like trying to describe the night sky having only ever seen a photo of it. Of course it's entirely possible that seeing the actual work would be a letdown. Possible, but given the general quality of art shown at Linda Warren Projects in Chicago, where Michiko Itatani's most recent work is now on display, that seems highly unlikely. While her subject matter and imagery varies, there is something especially appealing to me in these grand imagined interiors, "cosmic theaters" indeed. They're like a cross between the ancient library of Alexandrai, the wonders of Byzantium and something out of Star Trek, all suffused with an ethereal unreality that borders on the religious. But if religion is implied it is a secular one, a religion of knowledge and art. These spaces seem like high vast churches dedicated to narrative, knowledge and dreams. There is no god in them other than the artist herself, for these scintillating images exist as a kind of subcreation (a term coined by JRR Tolkien) in which the artist does not ask us to suspend out disbelief, but instead, through detail and consistent vision, compels our acceptance of her reality for the duration of our interaction with it. But really, I'm just guessing. I need to see these for myself. If only I could. If you happen to be in Chicago this September please go check them out at Linda Warren Projects
You can see much more of her work online at her website: www.michikoitatani.com

Dan Hillier

"Lunar Seas"

"Diamonds in the Mine"

"Wayfarer"

"Woodsman"

"Child"

Dan Hillier does some very cool collage. Is there anything else I should say? I can't think of what it might be. OK, I'll try. The beauty of collage, as in so many forms of art, is often found in simplicity. Sometimes just two found images recombined in just the right way can deliver an incredible impact. Too much fussing, and too many layers of imagery can ruin the thing. Dan Hillier gets this. His remade imagery mostly from old engravings, tends to lean toward the quasi-mystical with occasional dashes on horror. In other hands such subject matter might look like mere pop-culture new age ephemera but somehow he gets the effect just right. And one other thing... you can get t-shirts and tote bags in addition to framed prints. So, go see the rest of his work at www.danhillier.com

Jonathan Wolstenholme

title unknown

title unknown

"Two Old Tomes"

title unknown

"Secret Life of a Crime Writer"

John Wolstenholme's love of old books is obvious, and clearly matched by his wit and talent. Each of his carefully crafted watercolors is a kind of portrait, of readers, of writers, of critics, of whole genres of books. Despite the antiquarian details,(nothing in his work appears to be any more recent than early twentieth century) they are distinctly contemporary in their surrealist humor. There really is not much more that needs to be said about these, for they speak quite clearly for themselves without any need for explication. One only needs to see them to appreciate them, and to recognize that just as there is no end to the art form of the book itself, Mr. Wolstenholme is unlikely to run out of material for his tremendously entertaining and engaging work. You can see just few more through his representatives at: portalpainters.co.uk
and one or two more at: hifructose.com
I don't know about you but I would love to see many many more.

Edmund Mathews

"The Offering"  30" x 40"  oil on canvas

"The Gathering"  30" x 40"  oil on canvas

"The Docking"  24" x 30"  oil on canvas

"The Immigrants"  18" x 24"  oil on canvas

"The Excavation"  72" x 36"  charcoal and acrylic on linen

Edmund Mathews began a new series of paintings and drawings just a couple of years ago exploring a world in which giant crates, steamer trunks and other containers loom as powerful symbols of human transience. We place an enormous value on home and stability, but history is a story of movement "by chance, instinct, plan or force" (as the artist says). And when people move they bring whatever material goods they can with them. This luggage, the baggage of human dislocation and relocation, takes on a mythic role in these images, as if they were the most iconic symbols of who we are, telling the story of where we came from and how we got here. The paintings are executed in a very simple and straightforward manner, no pretensions of expressive technique or highly stylized rendering. This simplicity adds to their appeal in my mind, grounding them in a way that seems rooted in common experience. Each image may vary slightly in tone, from the magical wonder in "The Gathering" to the epic struggle of "The Offering". But mostly they seem somewhat detached, mere observation of a universal truth. A truth that may be become more and more familiar to us all in times ahead. For there is a good chance that as climate around the world shifts we will see ever increasing numbers of people on the move, their lives upended and made more precarious by change. And they will cling, as travelers have always clung, to those precious things that they bring with them from their homes.
There's a few more from this series on the artists website: www.edmundmathews.com .
He has plenty of other work as well from sculpture to commercial digital work. Personally I can't wait to see more from this series which was also included in the most recent issue of New American Paintings #105 (congratulations Mr. Mathews!)

Lindsey Carr

Platonic Solids I

"Garden"

The Flower House

"La Bizarre Singerie"

from the artist's website: Singerie is a French word meaning 'Monkey Trick' and refers to a genre depicting monkeys mimicking human behavior - it reached its stylistic epitome during the 18thC in the decorative motifs of the Chinoiserie Rococo period.
The scenes commonly involved monkeys dressed as Mandarins balancing on high wires, serving tea, fishing, playing. It gave such a saccharine and genteel view of human activities for what was to become a bloody century in European history.

Simius Religiosus

There are a few other artist out there who riff on the lush work of John James Audubon and other scientific illustrators of the 18th & 19th century. Justin Gibbens springs to mind. For originality and wit Lindsey Carr's work is on the same high level. Audubon famously depicted his birds in appropriate botanical settings. Lindsey Carr's work has animals, plants, insects and others sharing her pictorial space in completely unpredictable, sometimes downright surreal ways. Her work seems to comment on the interplay of species, sometimes meditating on the extraordinary synthesis of life and the wondrous balances of co-evolutionary processes, and then at other times fixating on the grim and brutal struggles between species that constitutes natural selection. Which is fitting. Because neither picture accurately captures the grand scope of nature, nor our fascination with it. But her primary interest may not be the natural world at all. Referencing all manner of cultural and historical practices she holds up the examination of nature as a mirror in which to examine our very strange and mysterious selves. Beyond that the work is quite simply exquisitely conceived and executed. I only wish there was a little more information about some of the pieces sizes and media. The first image here "Platonic Solid I" was posted recently on her blog with the comment that it reflects "A tiny shift in focus". I'm looking forward to seeing more of that shift! Go check out her website and look at loads more: pickle-town.typepad.com

thanks to the folks at artistaday.com for posting her work.

Ben Smith

"Doubt Begins at Breakfast (double self-portrait)"  oil on board  126 x 170cm

"This Could Go Either Way"  oil on board  77 x 55cm

"In Two Minds (double self-portrait)"  oil on board  105 x 95 cm

"The Influence: Leonard Cohen consoles Nick Cave"  oil on board  122 x 110 cm

"The Late Shower"  oil on board  60 x 75 cm

Ben Smith is an Australian artist meeting with some recent success, winning awards and being a finalist for many more. It's easy to see why. In addition to some solid drawing and painting technique, his images display a keen, insightful wit. In his own words he tries to "combine the beautiful and the unsettling, the humorous and the sincere, the banal and the uncanny". The dissonance of these juxtapositions are what hook the viewer. It's not unlike how the mind works all the time, one part of the brain thinking one way, while another part is off in the opposite direction. Thoughts can diverge into multiple tangents. Emotions can layer up so that they're almost impossible to describe. And sometimes the difference between dream, reverie and conscious thought can blur and meld until we mistakenly remember one as another. Ben Smith's work lives in this reality, the nebulous and peculiar world of our ordinary psyches. Don't get too distracted by some of the more explicit meanings in some of these images. The "joke" about about Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave in "The Influence" might require some familiarity with their music but the painting works even without it. And the two expressions on the double self-portrait "Of Two Minds" may convey the direct point of the title but really, it's the duck that really gets you.
You can see more at his website bensmith.viewbook.com or at his gallery's website: www.dickersongallery.com.au
Thanks to vivianite.net for posting his work before me.

Santiago Caruso

"Cabinet of Wonders"

from "The Bloody Countess"

"Portrait of Crime"

"You Look Like Rain"

Santiago Caruso is an Argentine illustrator and artist with an intensely dark surrealist vision. It came as no surprise to me to find that he has done a great deal of illustration work for the writings of H. P. Lovecraft. There is an undeniable atmosphere that both share, not merely dark, but hyper-sensitive, paranoid, on the threshold of madness. The themes are myth, mortality, temptation and the supernatural. It's a rich vein of material that is more generally mined by lesser talents. Clichés are usually the norm in the genre of horror, so for anyone who enjoys that sort of thing, it is a rare treat to find material that treats it with both seriousness and originality. If you count yourself among those, then you really need to spend some time browsing his website. He has a lot of material to look through, and for many of the images he provides extraordinary detail images and process shots capturing his painstaking and exquisite technique.
www.santiagocaruso.com.ar