wait.in.the.water

Thinking Cap, Corey Corcoran

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:43:58 +0000

Prolific paperback novel illustrator Bob Abbett’s gorgeous...

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 19:32:55 +0000

Prolific paperback novel illustrator Bob Abbett’s gorgeous illustrations for Irving Wallace’s 1964 unintentionally pulp PolitComic “The Man” are the perfect visual accompaniment to a premise that, until relatively recently, might have seemed most appropriate between the covers of quick-fix literature:

In the bizarre event - possible even in fiction only through the confluence of extreme political circumstances and reactionary affirmative action - a black man should become U.S President, would the challenges of racism, intrigue and public backlash from minority communities and the mainstream alike prove too much to overcome?

By all accounts, the book is hardly crammed with blade-sharp insight, but it doesn’t stop me from desperately wanting a copy.

Apple, by Yehrin Tong It seems like I’m in the mood for...

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:45:08 +0000

Apple, by Yehrin Tong

It seems like I’m in the mood for geometrically torturous illustrations, tessellations and typography at the moment, so here’s another….

Via itsnicethat

Experimental typography by Ashleigh Barron inspired by...

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:13:20 +0000

Experimental typography by Ashleigh Barron inspired by ‘Digital’, the last song ever performed live by Joy Division before the suicide of the band’s singer Ian Curtis.

‘A’ by Sarah A King of the Evening Tweed graphic...

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 08:57:32 +0000

‘A’ by Sarah A King of the Evening Tweed graphic design collective.

This is the third work I have come across organically by an artist involved with Nobrow magazine in some way since I leafed through their small press publications at the Alternative Press Fair earlier this month… The biannual illustration anthology is on its second issue, and definitely looks like one to watch.

Holger Lippmann, Schorfheide (3), 2008 via iheartmyart

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:39:00 +0000

Holger Lippmann, Schorfheide (3), 2008

via iheartmyart

Last tribe member, oil on paper, Marshall Arisman. Henry...

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:23:00 +0000

Last tribe member, oil on paper, Marshall Arisman.

Henry Sutton’s recent Guardian feature on unreliable narrators in literature was a parade of my favourite authors and novels, and is definitely worth a read. Bret Easton Ellis was rightly among their number, and I made a note to excavate my copy of American Psycho and re-read the final chapter on an evening where weather, bank balance or hangover made my bedroom an attractive option.

On picking up my battered European edition tonight, I was struck by how powerful and appropriate the cover artwork is - just as I was when I first finished the book and performed the familiar closing ritual of savouring the story’s last word, thumbing despondently through the literary desert of empty pages that languish at the back of many trade paperbacks and, finally, turning the whole book over to look at the cover and title a last time before the story is put back to sleep on a shelf.

The commission must have been an easy one to make: Marshall Arisman specialises in distorted, tortured figures wracked with the darkest emotions and succumbing to violent transformation or scenes of carnage and their aftermath.

"Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth."

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 07:14:05 +0000

“Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”

- Series: Colloquialisms i hope never to learn the etymology for.

Garuda is the French animation house Les Gobelins latest short...

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:27:12 +0000

Garuda is the French animation house Les Gobelins latest short animated feature. It follows the exploits of a small Indian boy following his dreams in a beautifully crafted parallax world drenched in colour and gorgeous brushwork.

via beautiful/decay

A photograph from the Sexual Colour series by Gabriel Wickbold....

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:07:03 +0000

A photograph from the Sexual Colour series by Gabriel Wickbold. There’s a lesson to be learned here, I think: Bridle your fetish.

via sweet station

Alida Rosie Sayer’s Glasgow School of Art degree show...

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 12:52:44 +0000

Alida Rosie Sayer’s Glasgow School of Art degree show played host to a meeting between typography, the third dimension, style and wit.

via cmykern

untitled and fa.fn 10, oil on canvas from photo collage, Karim...

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:39:37 +0000

untitled and fa.fn 10, oil on canvas from photo collage, Karim Hamid.

An excerpt from the artist statement:

I am most interested in the process by which the female figure is objectified by the archetypal male gaze. Art history is a rich source from which to cull a broad sense [sic] in the singular pursuit of the idealized female form. The goal in my paintings and photo collage is to exaggerate and distort that emphasis, to give it an alternative life and function.

via booooom

"Dressed up to the nines"

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 18:08:00 +0000

“Dressed up to the nines”

- Series: Colloquialisms i hope never to learn the etymology for.

The clay-skinned figures rendered in Juergen Grewe’s muted...

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 19:48:42 +0000

The clay-skinned figures rendered in Juergen Grewe’s muted paintings seem defeated, resigned to going through the motions or surviving the moment. Their ice blue, sepia tinted, lazy teracotta or afternoon violet skin tones breathe disinterest.

I have written about Kate MccGwire’s compelling, tactile...

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 10:10:00 +0000

I have written about Kate MccGwire’s compelling, tactile sculpture before, and nine months on I am no less of a fan. My favourite pieces have a carefully crafted liquidity or are reminiscent of museum taxidermy, preserving and presenting fantastic specimens that never were.

I’m excited to see that she will be exhibiting a show entitled Strangeness and Charm
at Viktor Wynd Fine Art in London from February 5th to 14th March. See you there?

Happy Post-Valentine’s Day - unless, of course, it...

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 13:29:04 +0000

Happy Post-Valentine’s Day - unless, of course, it isn’t.

Untitled, ‘Happy Accidents’, Matt Stuart

Matt Stuart “can’t hide behind lights and technology, [so is] reliant on a small Leica camera, patience and lots of optimism.” He’s currently exhibiting at Hoxton’s KK Outlet.

via creativereview

Hiena, Oil and charcoal on linen, Antony Micallef Mixed...

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:36:00 +0000

Hiena, Oil and charcoal on linen, Antony Micallef

Mixed messages: Intercourse minus identity; a doe-eyed scavenger; a moment in motion; a plaything posed.

also at fuanntassic

Automat (I), 2008, oil on canvas, Michaël Borremans I’m...

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 12:30:14 +0000

Automat (I), 2008, oil on canvas, Michaël Borremans

I’m learning that there’s a particular kind of artwork, and therefore often artist, who is able to draw a response from me that I don’t encounter in any other situation. When a work offers me promise, threat and darkness I respond with excitement, trepidation, desire, denial and regret.

Michaël Borremans painted scenes, with their curt palette, broad strokes and inscrutable protagonists are prime examples.

via file magazine

work in progress, Caitlin Hackett The current ‘Myths and...

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 09:53:57 +0000

work in progress, Caitlin Hackett

The current ‘Myths and Monsters’ exhibition at London’s Hornimann Museum held promise until a little research revealed its sanitised ‘family friendly’ slant. Caitlin Hackett’s drawings and paintings bring the ‘human’ and ‘animal’ together with the kind of force I find appealing: extreme.

Forms are contorted and subverted with real illustrative skill and an obvious love of victoriana.

something so utterly sublime, pencil and gouache on book page,...

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:49:41 +0000

something so utterly sublime, pencil and gouache on book page, Olivia Jeffries

Olivia Jeffries’ works reuse the careworn pages and covers of found books. Her drawings are charming, but it’s the ghostly imprint of illustrations from facing pages, her canvas’ smoothly disintegrating corners and the evocation of the familiar smell of damp, faintly mouldering book paper that I’m drawn to.

As a child, my elder brother’s bedroom was a geometrically convoluted loft space, the eaves of which hid afterthought cupboards and half-finished cubby-holes through which streetlight would leak at night. Inside (and strictly against my brother’s instructions), I’d find boxes of old books - the names of which I’ve long forgotten - clad in old-fashioned and uninviting yellowing glossy dust jackets that crinkled when I eased each book open. I read them regardless, mostly for the mystery of their provenance.