Ian Brill, NYC native and Pittsburgh resident, creates installations that focus on the accumulation of form through process. Through the creation of interactive, performative, and multi-sensorial environments, he considers the boundaries of becoming and our relationship with technology. His installations, performances, and writing have been presented internationally, at conferences, festivals museums and galleries.
Doucement is an independent textile art and design studio helmed by Monica Hofstadter. The textile objects she creates from natural fibers and radiant plastics blur the line between minimalist art and over the top creature comforts. Each piece is inspired by the love of being home, creating serene moments for the senses, and the magic and spirituality of the tangible world.
Victoria Bradley is a Pittsburgh-based illustrator and painter, as well as editor-in-chief of Table magazine. Her focus on the female form is powerful, sensual, and at times voyeuristic. The way Victoria mixes mediums and styles effortlessly always leaves me waiting to see what she creates next.
Just some artfully smeared blobs of paint, right? Wrong. (Of course.) Cj Hendry‘s Complimentary Colors are actually a collection of hyperrealistic colored pencil drawings. Layer upon layer mimics the sheen of oil paint for the series commissioned by Christian Louboutin for Art Basel Hong Kong. What surprised me most, after the unexpected medium reveal, is how Cj was able to achieve such a consistency in color throughout each piece.
I fell hard for Nathaniel Russell‘s Calm Down Party fake flier the instant I saw a few years ago, but only recently found out about the talented artist behind it. Russell not only creates fake fliers and books, but also paints, illustrates, sculpts, and woodcuts – so much talent in one human being.
Photographer Ken Hermann and art director Gem Fletcher teamed up to create Smoke, explosions of color set against desolate industrial landscapes. The one constant is the stepladder at the center of each photo. There’s also something special about nature herself acting as a third contributor, deciding which way the wind would blow and distribute all that colorful magic.
Most would say millinery is a dying art form, but not Chuchu. The Hong Kong-born, New York-based creator makes most of her headpieces from paper! Her work has strutted down runways, been spread across the pages of high fashion magazines, and attended the chicest parties. (I think I’d have to display mine prominently after wearing!)
Marie de Beaucourt created this Herstory of Feminism Poster that was inspired by Victorian book design. It features a rose tree timeline of the year women gained suffrage in different countries, important legislative victories in Europe and in the U.S., as well as milestones of key feminist figures around the world.
As a fervent feminist, I wanted to create a beautiful piece of art that would synthesise key dates and facts and introduce some of the women that have shaped the movement or that embody feminist values. It took a while to determine the information I wanted to include and how to present it (a Jezebel journalist and women’s rights activist kindly proofread it for me) and countless hours of drawing and painting. I obviously didn’t aim for exhaustivity, but tried to include information about all waves and as many nationalities and ethnicities as possible. I hope it will make people want to learn more about feminism and its historic activists and thinkers.
Embroidery may as well be called slow expressionism. Vancouver-raised stitcher Sophie MacNeill (aka Slow Stitch Sophie) is very much influenced by what’s around her, examining themes of ecology and connection. The thread and fabric she uses is often hand-dyed with natural materials from her surroundings. Such a meaningful, intentional process, along with Sophie’s day job as a landscape architect, makes for some powerfully beautiful environmental advocacy.
If you follow Design Crush on Instagram then you know how much I love a good quotes (check out the #365quotes2018 tag for this year’s daily project), and I’ve had an eye on Grapheme‘s Tiny Letterpress Collection for awhile now. I first came across it when several stationers I follow started sharing the pieces they’d purchased. The collection of limited edition letterpress printed quotes are handset in 6-pt type and paired with a corresponding vintage postage stamp, each one measuring 3 7/8″ x 3 7/8″.
