Matthew Rangel is from the San Joaquin Valley of California, where he grew up among agricultural productivity and economically challenged communities. This setting plays a huge role in Rangel’s creativity. The maps in his work are generated using lithography as well as a variety of other traditional and digital printmaking methods, but it’s the overlaid illustrations that make his work hit home for anyone who has experienced anything like his youth.
Christy M. King is Nashville-based, while the flora her botanical collages mimic are all from North Carolina – a nod to her own roots. The series explores what it means to be American (to Americans as well as others), her interest living a green life, and making art through recycling paper scraps.
Paper quilling is sometimes thought of as and old lady’s craft, but Griffin Carrick‘s work is anything but. As both an interior designer and maker her goal is to transform the everyday into the extraordinary, believing that beauty does not rely on luxury or trend but on the unexpected use of the familiar. Paper is definitely the familiar and Griffin’s use of it in her collages and wall hangings is entirely modern.
There is a LOT going on in Elliott Hundley‘s densely articulated works. What exactly are we observing – paintings? Sculptures? Collages? All of that and then some, it turns out. From photos to flea market finds to news clippings, Hundley creates layer upon layer of psychologically dense content for us to dissect.
We last checked in with Eli Craven back in 2015, and wow has he been busy. Still hard at work manipulating and deconstructing photography every which way, Craven is such an expert at hiding faces that he may as well be in the Witness Protection Program. I love the mystery and intrigue left behind by every piece.
Plenty of couples work together, but Irina and Silviu Szekely create across multiple disciplines – collage and photography. Today we’re highlighting the duo’s handmade collage work, which is made using scissors and glue just like the rest of us might grab at home. Each piece is full of completely disjointed bits and bobbles, and yet things end up ultimately harmonious. (I’m thinking we could all learn something from this, no?)
I’ve learned more about politics in the past year than the previous 35 combined, and part of that has been about the economy which has impacted me in a very real way. Stefanie Herr’s The Growth Imperative uses six photographic relief sculptures to explore stock charts over a period of six years. Each piece is crafted by hand using pigment print on Hahnemühle photo rag, museum matboard, aluminium, and other materials.
“The Growth Imperative explores the spatial dimension of stock charts by translating their peaks and valleys into physical coordinates. Inspired by the neoliberal fantasy of infinite economic growth on a finite planet, The Growth Imperative maps the performance of the S&P 500 Pure Growth Index over a six-years period between 2009 and 2015 and transposes it into six sculptural objects covered with photographs of forests.
The forest is the place where growth is inevitable and vegetation luxuriates. It is a multidimensional space that expands both horizontally and vertically and devours everything within its boundaries. Exposed to the erratic and uncontrollable behaviour of the stock market, each photograph is stretched, distorted and finally broken into 440 triangular facets. Thus, The Growth Imperative seeks to unmask the self-destructive nature of neoliberal capitalism and its central role in causing serious environmental, social and territorial imbalances.
Entirely crafted by hand, each piece of the series took about two months to complete. In a world subject to the vagaries of global capitalist economy, the market constitutes the main creative force behind it and consequently becomes its true sculptor.”
Just a little bit psychedelic, Justin Margitich‘s art definitely has the ability to leave your mind in an altered state. His mixed media – watercolor, acrylic, and colored pencil – pieces might not be quite as saturated in color as the 1960s counterparts they remind me of, but their otherworldly vibe makes me love them just as much.
TWOONE, aka Hiroyasu Tsuri, has a way of creating mixed media art that makes me want to be a fly on the wall. TWOONE’s latest project is 100 Faces, a collection of portraits created over a two year period. They’ve also been combined into a book, along with reference photos and sketches for you to browse!
