Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg

"Wind Map" on Oct. 30, 2012 - Sandy

Wind Map is one of my favorite things to look at lately. A friend referred to it as pixie stix for the eyes. With the storm back east it has been pretty dramatic too. This is just a screen shot. You have to load the real thing and watch it move. I should have posted this yesterday. Oh well. Better late than never. "Wind Map" is the product of Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg at hint.fm where they explore the crossroads of informational data and artistic expression. In most cases there is some aspect of interactivity so you can't always tell too much from these static images. So I urge you to go to their website and spend a little time exploring their work. And bookmark that windmap. You'll want to return again and again. I promise you.

"The Art of Reproduction" 2011 - reclining nude - Modigliani

The art of reproduction explores the wild divergences in color reproductions of art. You never really know how different the image you're looking at is from the original.

"Web Seer"  2009

Web Seer explores human curiosity by using "google suggest" to see what others are thinking

Nina Elder

"Pile"  2009  Acrylic on Panel  48" x 84"

"El Huerfano (The Orphan) II"  2011  Acrylic and Gesso on Panel  36" x 48"

"Double Feature I (Alamosa)"  2009  Acrylic on panel  36" x 48"

"Defunct: Ojo Caliente"  2011  Acrylic on Panel  48" x 60"

 

"Lode"  2011  Acrylic on Panel 48" x 60"

Nina Elder's paintings apply the flat mass produced feel of pop-art to the post industrial American landscape. It's an unexpectedly nice fit. There's something about this look, that was originally employed to mimic the glossy glitz of pop-culture and consumerism, that does as fine a job describing the shabby detritus of our modern landscapes. It's as if to say, this too is consumerism. Not in the form of entertainment and advertising, but the more direct consequences of how consumer culture consumes and transforms the real world. Being a resident of New Mexico most of her work echoes the open spaces of the West, but it's not a romantic openness. Instead what she sees is how the perceived emptiness is used as an excuse to construct and destruct without concern of cosequences.
You can see more paintings, plus drawings and other work on her website: ninaelder.com
Nina's work was recently featured in New American Paintings 96.

Takashi Saito

Takashi Saito loves faces. There are over 2000 images on his Flickr page and almost all of them are of faces. He paints and draws them in a wide range of approaches from deft realism, to all manner of stylized distortions. Many of his faces are more design than portrait, and yet something of the model always seems to come through. One of his favorite tricks is render certain parts of the face in sharp clarity, usually something innocuous like an ear or nose or the neckline of the shirt, and then allow the rest of the face to disintegrate into a soft focus blur. He often allows the eyes to almost disappear, drawing us away from what is our natural focus and forcing us to look at the face in a very new way.
You can see some of his work on his website (www.saitotakashi.com) but the aforementioned Flickr page is the place to go. Start with this set of his own favorite pieces.
And according to his profile page he's looking for photographs to work from, so post your mug on Flickr and send him the link. You may never see your own face in quite the same way again.

PS it's well worth clicking on these images to view them larger!






















2007 July Oil on canvas mounted on board 29.7 × 21.0cm






















2010 Acrylic on panel 41.0 x 27.3 cm














































2010 Acrylic on paper 29.6 x 21.0 cm













































2009 Gouache on paper 29.6 x 20.8 cm























Acrylic on paper 29.7 x 21.0 cm

Phil Delisle

While most of the work on his website (www.thetq.com/phil) appears to be from 2007 or earlier with only a couple of exceptions, it's new to me, so...
He dabbles occasionally and successfully in abstraction but it is his more graphic work referencing the painting process, himself and art in general (sometimes in one fell swoop) that dominate his work. It's great loopy stuff and wandering through it is not unlike visiting an art version of a funhouse mirror maze.
I'm hoping he's okay and we'll be seeing new work twisting old themes inside out and back around again soon.






















"In The Studio Painting" 64x48" Acrylic in Canvas 2009

















"A Painting of an Exhibition" 45x59" 2007
















"The Studio Process" 48x64.5" 2007


Here he riffs on the graphic style of an instruction manual (on the website you can view the individual painting or panels)

















"How to Make a Painting in 9 Simple Steps" 13.5x15.5 each panel 2004

And here he riffs on his on his own riff.














"How to Make a 'How To' Painting Series" 13.5x15.5" each panel 2005