‘Celebrated and self-trained, Tampa Bay-based taxidermy artist Juan Cabana has been delighting and disturbing audiences with his strange, lifeless life-forms since 2001. Mermaids are his special fascination, but he presents many variations on this theme. Among the other sinister sea monsters conceived in his workshop: a Cyclops known as ‘Omi’; a massive mammalian-jawed monstrosity, ’Stranded’; a skull-faced manfish called ‘Nereus’; and a winged sea faerie, ‘Oceanic Pixy’.’ Continue reading…

Martin Wittfooth was born in Toronto in 1981, and spent of his childhood in Finland, moving back to Canada in 1993. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn, where he earned his MFA at the School of Visual Arts in 2008. His art draws much inspiration from the works of classical masters, the observation of both natural and manmade environments and landscapes, and contemporary issues. His oil paintings are essentially explorations of the meeting of these very sources.

” I am an international graphic designer that recently started incorporating unconventional painting styles and illustration to a combined digital and analogue body of work. With a background lying in Fine Art, many of my new series are a process of rediscovering an array of religious and cultural esoterica, traditional techniques and classical imagery that is then deconstructed and often destroyed. I currently work in Sydney, and attend the College of Fine Arts studying a BFA in Art Education. A strong interest in curating led to the creation of Dust & Dessert (d/d) magazine which, originally a White Walls Studio publication, I am now the sole editor of.” – Jennifer Mehigan

“Contemporary culture, human folly and an obsessive curiosity for the macabre provide the fuel for my subject matter. My work is inspired by the natural sciences as well as by the classical drawing techniques of the old masters, including anatomical studies by artists such as Andreas Vesalius and Bernhard Siegfried Albinus. My recent paintings incorporate anatomical imagery to explore the human psychological condition, such as cutaway skulls portraying our basic human drives and the thin veneer of humanity overlaying our animal nature.”- Sandra Yagi

‘Created in the first years of the AIDS epidemic, this work was conceived in concerto form (three movements). All of the images were circular or oval, and each movement had nine paintings, going through the spectrum from white to black (W-Y-O-R-V-B-G-B-B). The project explored the potential of overly sentimentalized imagery (clowns, tattoos, greeting cards) to express the artist’s feelings of anger, loss, and “otherness.” The prevailing social and aesthetic climate seemed incapable of recognizing or commenting upon those who were dying of this mysterious and stigmatizing virus, and this project was an attempt by Woodruff to communicate his reactions. This work includes: Crying Clowns: portraits of the artist turning in space from left to right. Cardiomegaly: a medical term for the swelling of the heart, these images were derived from classic tattoo “flash” designs. As the hearts swelled, the daisy petals carved into the mahogany frames became fewer and fewer. Cyncere Cympathy: By combining flowers that were the wrong color with cute animals in peril, Woodruff attempted to create sympathy cards for the uncomfortable and jarring events that were occurring all around him.’ Link here.

Born June 14, 1956 in Paris, lives and works in Paris. A graduate of the Ecole Nationale des Arts Decoratifs in Paris. Jean Faucheur explores all techniques, all types of stands and spaces, mixes and manipulates materials (metal, drawing, photographs) to produce works of all shapes and sizes. This explorer of the arts remains a paradoxical figure embodying the link between the pioneers and the emerging stars in urban art. Check him out on addictgalerie.com

Born in Taipei, Taiwan, and raised as an outsider in a series of small American towns, Fay Ku invokes both Eastern and Western traditions in her drawings, which combine remarkably smooth draftsmanship and meticulous detail with idiosyncratic, discomforting ideas. (via EightModern)

” Borrowing from the ancient craft of wood-burning, I attempt to portray the natural world in fresh ways to express my profound appreciation of animals and nature. I am moved by the graceful synthesis of a smooth wooden surface and the heat infused within to create rich sepia. As I “paint with heat,” I feel a certain parallel between the wild and natural spirits that embody my subjects and distinctively unforgiving nature of my medium.” – Julie Bender

‘A mixture of painting and sculpture, Booth’s works extend into visitors’ space like the pop-up illustration books of our childhood. Distancing himself from the “high art” pop-art genre made famous by Warhol and Lichtenstein, Booth embraces the “low brow”. Describing his work as “Lichtenstein goes to Osaka”, the artist relives the art of Japanese anime, inspired by the “super-flat” movement led by artists such as Takashi Murakami.’ Link here.

Rosson Crow is a bright, brash, bold young painter from L.A. via Dallas, Texas. Her super-scale history paintings superimpose theatrical tableau from suggestively paired periods: whether the garden of Versailles, a Vegas Casino, a Jason Rhodes neon installation, a honky tonk bar, an equestrian dressage field or Abraham Lincoln’s funeral procession, her clever parings have a hallucinatory relationship to their sources and deal in design and power. Rendered in glowing layers of oil paints and washes, her theatrical confabulations collapse centuries and synthesize styles to reveal the multiply haunted nature of interior space and the affinities that align across time. Though critically sophisticated, Rosson will tell you her paintings are also BIG and FUN, two things she is not embarrassed to celebrate. (via Deitch Gallery)