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Image © Nona Limmen
Tag Archives: Darkarts
[enchantment] Tomaas / Nuestra
Photography: Tomaas
Paints/Paper: Nuestra
On Photo: Liliya PolokhovaTomaas Behance
Nuestra Cargo Collective
Paints/Paper: Nuestra
On Photo: Liliya PolokhovaTomaas Behance
Nuestra Cargo Collective
Image @ Tomaas / Nuestra
Disturbing collages and more by Jesse Draxler
It was some weeks ago that the art of Jesse Draxler caught my attention. I spotted his works on Alicia Hannah Naomi’s (maker of this beautiful pendant + more treasures) Tumblr feed. I immediately followed him on Instagram and Tumblr and after admiring his stuff for days I decided this week’s full post should be about him.
Jesse is an artist, illustrator and designer based in Minneapolis where he makes “the damn thing” (as he says here), primarily using collage but with no fear to explore the possibilities of other mediums, also because switching back and forth between mediums is helpful when he gets stuck.
The collages are made by hand and for the small scale works he uses an Italian glue called Cocoina, something I remember using during my first years at school.
In recent times Jesse reduced the color palette on his works, noticing this helps him to focus more on the composition and the design of the pieces, and started making several monochrome pieces with a dark and disturbing mood I am sure you’ll love. His main aim is to create a certain mood with his works and, to do this, he listens to what the source images have to tell and tries to transpose it on the final pieces. His influences are always evolving and disparate such as the cosmos, the supernatural, sex, beauty, Alexander McQueen, Rotcho, Kubrik and more.
Reading some interviews I understood he’s not very interested in talking about his art and he prefers way more to make stuff than talk. So let’s give a look to his works and let them speak for him.
Images @ Jesse Draxler
Exhibit: At the end of time by Michaela Knížová
If you have the chance to be in Bruxelles from March the 13th to April the 4th, don’t miss the opportunity to visit Michaela Knížová exhibit “At the end of time” at Maison Bergamini.
Be sure to book your visit unless you plan to be there on the opening or closing day.
Here the details:
Opening 17 March from 18.30h to 20.30
Maison Bergamini
Rue de la Senne 17
B 1000 Brussels
+32 2 51 34 788
maisonb17@gmail.com
Open by appointment only except for the days 17 May and 14 April 2015
Nicola Samorì: transfiguring the masters
The works of Nicola Samorì engage with the masterworks of Italian Renaissance and Baroque in a singular way. With the intention to keep alive or bring new attention to old master painters, Nicola, copies their works with the main purpose to transfigure and torture them, sometimes with just one gesture. Nicola’s paintings are often made of several paint layers, applied day after day for a week or more. On top of all these layers finally, the subject on which Nicola performs his act of violence as throwing diluent on selected parts, peeling paint with a palette-knife, with his bare hands or nails. He tears off the skin of the painting to reveal its internal body parts, the core of the piece. With his controversial way of working, Nicola confront himself not only with old great masters but with “painting” itself.
His body of work is really dark, somber and often disturbing and for him it is not a strange thing: “The Church filled not only Houses of worship but our unconscious too with violent forms, with blood and terror. Therefore, we should not be surprised if in West cultures we still work following this path …” he declared.
These dark traits made him famous in other nations before Italy (his own country), where maybe it looks too impudent to call our great masters in question.
Check some works by Nicola Samorì here and don’t forget to visit his official site.
Images © Nicola Samorì
Additional links / Sources:
Video: Studio Visit with Nicola Samorì (Italian audio only)
Interview: Nicola Samorì, quando sfregiare le opere diventa arte (Italian only)
About dark arts …
“La Chiesa ha riempito non solo gli edifici di culto, ma anche il nostro inconscio di forme violente, di sangue e di terrore. Non ci si deve perciò meravigliare se in Occidente si continua a lavorare su questo solco … ”
“The Church filled not only Houses of worship but our unconscious too with violent forms, with blood and terror. Therefore, we should not be surprised if in West cultures we still work following this path …”
Nicola Samorì
