Kehinde Wiley

It was almost impossible to choose which of Kehinde Wiley's fukin rad paintings to display. I chose these because I liked the themes of 1) hot women mugging in front of psychedelic wallpaper, and 2) men lying down. (This theme is in no way Wiley's, these paintings are from different exhibitions and projects.)

The men lying down are, in fact, part of Wiley's Down series. Paintings in this series reinvent the poses and compositions of master works with  young, black dudes as subjects. The paintings are badass and flawless. They're also enormous (see artist in last image for scale), which further emphasizes their sensation du triomphe (#iwokeuplikethis).

Stop what you're doing and g visit kehindewiley.com to see more and even more of his pieces. Go now. Do it. 

Portrait of Mary Hill, Lady Killigrew, 2013

The Lamentation Over the Dead Christ, 2008

China Samantha Nash, 2013

The Virgin Martyr St Cecilia, 2006

Femme piquee par un serpent, 2008

Cleon Peterson

Cleon Peterson's primary color paintings of athletic, sadistic violence in 2D are pretty awesome even though (or because?) they make me a bit queasy. The subjects fight in a bleak, context-less place like slaves did in scenes from the walls of a Pharoah's tomb. 

The three shown below are 1) a horrific war of bodies stabbing and choking each other, 2) a scene reminiscent of police beatings filmed as of late, 3) what looks like a match between two luchadors. (Not really, but kinda.)

Whew. Rough stuff. And the others (or the feeling of viewing dozens of them at once) are even more chilling/terrifying/sickening/moving. I'd suggest you go see them by visiting cleonpeterson.com. 

Caryn Cast - County Fair Winners

I love these paintings based on winners of a county fair by Queens artist Caryn Cast. Maybe it's her Florida-to-Tennessee upbringing (maybe not), but these pastels/acrypic/paper/wood pieces are awesomely reminiscent of Mid-America genre paintings of community, rural, middle-class folk doing their thing.

I particularly love Gayle's smile. I'd be smiling, too, if I had that many jars of pickles. Pickles. Yum. 

In addition to these artistic accomplishments, Caryn has won lots of prestigious awards, and produced a particularly interesting and arresting mural of Kim Jong II milking a cow.  The Supreme Leader is half smiling half grimacing as he squeezes the cow's udders. It reminds me of the photos I saw once of  Kim Jong Un's tour of North Korean factories and farms in which he gets very excited about looking at salmon and other items. 

Anyhow, visit her website to see the Supreme Leader and other delightful pieces. 

Mike Biskup

Mike Biskup paints soothing Where's Waldo and magic eye pictures. Not really. (But kind-of.) Painted with watercolor (translucent, pastel) and India ink (permanent, black), his multilayered works are ordered, architectural romps through the daisies. Or, the product of meditations on a happy yellow word repeated into nonsense: "guava, guava, guava."  

On his website, he mentions hanging paintings on the wall to be added to over days, weeks, years. He also mentions that his art is inspired by the Buddhist idea of Interbeing. Which has something to do with a cloud. And rain. And the meaning of life.

I like it, Biskup. You keep doing you.

To see more (and purchase) these pieces, visit mikebiskup.com.

Mindset K

Knight By Day

A Step Felt in Full  

Serra

Albert Reyes

Albert Reyes lives in El Sereno, a suburb of Los Angeles. I've been following him on Instagram for a while now. If he truly creates as many pieces as he posts, he's pretty much a machine. He pumps out striking drawings and paintings of working-class (and working-girl) LA-ers at a dizzying speed. It seems as well that he's been on quite the booty train: white girl booty, black girl booty, Hispanic girl booty. Booty upside down and sideways and from da back. Booties to make you laugh, make you cry. Booties to inspire. 

My anaconda don't! //

I gathered some booties below. And threw in an Elvis, for good measure.

Check out more booties and more black/white/dynamic/graffiti-tinged/absurd/anaconda-don't pieces at thealbertreyes.com or on his Instagram @thealbertreyes. 

Stacy Rozich

Seattle-born, but LA-based artist and illustrator Stacey Rozich paints these fantastic and surreal cultural and religious mishmashes that I friggin luv. 

In the paintings below, it's as if Christmas demon, Krampus, and his Schnappviecher escaped from the Wudel Hunt, rounded up some skeleton amigos from the Día de Muertos fiesta, broke into an Urban Outfitters to don some coachella-style rompers then stumbled -- high on Meow Meow -- into a Byzantine dyptich that, by nature of their pagan presence, morphed into what looks like a rockin party. With Doritos. And PBR. And a tiger.  

#solsticemuertosfiesta2014, bitches!

To see more of her #phantastic work, go to staceyzorich.com.

Ryan Heshka

Canadian Ryan Heshka's paintings look like pages from Kavalier and Clay-era comics or pulp mags -- but ones telling sexier and wonkier stories than you remember. I love all of his paintings, but pulled out the four bold beauties below cuz, well, I wanted to pick at least a couple good'ns. Definitely visit his site, ryanheshka.com, to see more!

Michelle Robinson - female forms

Continuing in the #girlpower theme from yesterday's post, Michelle Robinson's bold, colorful, rhythmically-patterened paintings also prominently feature the female form. Many of her paintings feature a 2-D warrior-type woman with a colorful, patterned halo staring square at the onlooker.

The first painting, TAVIA, is an example of one of these. In this case the woman who might be Tavia (with her checkerboard halo) supervises a pit of beautiful naked women. I love how she's so unbending and dark while the ladiez behind her are very bendy indeed.

The second, Petal By Petal, is the piece that first caught my eye on Michelle Robinson's instagram. Though the image's Instagram caption, "she's comfortable in her skin...unveiling herself petal by petal" reminded me a bit too much of junior high sex talks with teachers and mothers and such, the composition is very pleasing. It reminds me of a peach and a heart and a keyhole and an iris and other sexy, female symbols.

To see more of Michelle Robinson's female-centric emanations of "self-empowerment, identity, community, sexuality, freedom and the human condition," visit her website, Create-ture.com. Though most of her originals are sold out (go gurl), you can buy prints, etc. 

Dawn Black - the snake and the rising of the stag

Dawn Black makes these evocative collage paintings. In this one, someone wearing one of those creepy red Spanish inquisition hoods holds what looks like a California king snake over the shoulders of a bejeweled soldier to whom a young man who looks like a slave from ancient Rome tips a stag head.

In medieval folklore/allegory, stags and snakes are enemies. Says the Medieval Bestiary, "When the stag discovers a snake, it spits water into the hole where the snake hides, draws the snake out with its breath, and tramples it to death. If the stag is ill or old, it draws the snake out of hiding and swallows it. The stag then finds water and drinks large amounts of it to overcome the poison, and is renewed. When the stag is renewed it sheds its horns. Some say that the stag cures its ills by eating crabs it finds in the water."

Allegorically, the stag is supposed to represent Christ who is renewed (and renews others) when he and they shed their horns (e.g. sins) after drinking water. And eating crabs. I hope that's what is going to happen here, but one cannot be too sure. Hm. many thoughts. much inquisition. wow. such snake. peligro gallows. so crabs.  

Wayne Chisnall - Painting #9 for Horror Movie, 'Blaze of Gory'

While romping through the Instagrams as I do, I found Wayne Chisnall's cute little monster illustrations and sculptures. When I clicked into his site, I found something much different: this incredibly evocative (uncomfortable?) series of paintings Chisnall is creating for new horror film, Blaze of Gory. This beautiful composition of a skull lined with maps is, apparently, #9. 

So what is Blaze of Gory, you ask? In Chisnall's words, Blaze of Gory is a series of: “short films ... based on the writings of a teenage girl called Blaize-Alix Szanto, who wrote these stories between the ages of 12 and 15 ... The section that [he's] been asked to produce the work for is called "Monster" and is about a young girl locked away in a high-security mental hospital for a series of brutal crimes." 

He uses autopsy photos to help himself create these paintings ("always a pleasant way to spend a relaxing Sunday!"). You don't say ... Yowza. Anyhow, you can check out these gory, vivid, spooky paintings on his portfolio. Good luck! (Enjoy?)