taking a creative break right now

Sylvia Ji was born in 1982 in San Francisco to artistic parents. Ji’s interest in art was implanted at a very young age when she would look through her mother’s sketchbooks and watch her father paint. In her art, she explores themes of beauty, sexual provocation, and social notions of femininity juxtaposed against the dystopian reality of modern cities to create highly charged paintings of women. Some of her paintings are symbolic reflections of herself, portraits of people she knows or just nameless faces set in a landscape of fleeting beauty. She graduated with distinction in 2005 from the Academy of Art University of San Francisco with a Bachelors in illustration and already had her first ambitious and successful solo show while still in her last year of school. Since then she has been in high demand, keeping continuously engaged in an onslought of numerous shows on the West Coast. Currently, she has works on display in both San Francisco and Los Angeles galleries. Visit frequently to stay updated on future shows for this emerging and promising artist.

Jinyoung Shin is a young illustrator living in New York. Check her amazing work in dadaly.net

The symbolic and metaphorical associations between fashion and the superhero are explored in this compelling exhibition. Featuring movie costumes, avant-garde haute couture, and high-performance sportswear, it reveals how the superhero serves as the ultimate metaphor for fashion and its ability to empower and transform the human body. Objects are organized thematically around particular superheroes, whose movie costumes and superpowers are catalysts for the discussion of key concepts of superheroism and their expression in fashion.

The Metropolitan Museum
May 7, 2008–September 1, 2008
Special Exhibition Galleries, 1st floor

LucyandBart is a collaboration between Lucy McRae and Bart Hess described as an instinctual stalking of fashion, architecture, performance and the body. They share a fascination with genetic manipulation and beauty expression. Unconsciously their work touches upon these themes, however it is not their intention to communicate this. They work in a primitive and limitless way creating future human shapes, blindly discovering low – tech prosthetic ways for human enhancement.

Yoshitomo Nara has released his first children’s book, The Lonesome Puppy.  A charming story of a puppy so large that no one notices him—until a determined little girl climbs high enough to meet him and become his friend. You’ll find a few excerpts here.

The superb art of Gottfried Helnwein, born in Vienna and now living in L.A. The man behind of the legendary cover for the Scorpions’ LP “Blackout” which piece is a self portrait painting originally used for “Zeit” magazine cover in 1982. Seen in Joia Magazine.

Herakut (from Germany) have just opened Streichelzoo, their first U.S. solo show at Carmichael Gallery in Los Angeles. The show will run through May 4th. You can find more information here.

Here, in chronological order, critic Martin Gayford chooses his 50 artistic wonders of the world …

I love the work of Finnish fashion illustrator Laura Laine. At 24 she has quite a respectable resume, as she has been making the pages of Páp Magazine, Fashion Forecast and Trendi …

Adam’s Apple retells the story of God, Adam and Eve, with an interesting modern twist involving Apple, and its founder Steve Jobs.

Not-Suitable-for-Work.