The Art of Marius Markowski

Artist Marius Markowski (b. 1976, Poland) (FB) creates pieces that exhibit such raw emotional sensitivity it catches one off guard (and ones breath). Marius exposes shapes and plays heavily with emotions. I really enjoy the busyness of the pieces, the chaotic simplicity. What is of particular interest to me, is the blending technique Marius uses, or rather, the exposed blending. How there are abrupt and clear lines for brush strokes.

Perhaps this is a result of Marius Markowski being a digital painter. Though he says of his work, “My artistic effort in digital painting founded its origin in the oil painting, where I was passionately focusing my energy for several years. One day I had the idea to prepare an image on the computer in order to have more liberty in the development process. I experimented with these new tools and so discovered my enthusiasm for digital painting.”

“In my artwork, I try to create vivid visual stimuli and have no intention to convey a political, moral or ideological message. I simply enjoy expressions of feelings, moods, ambiance and sensual perceptions.”

Marius Markowski | Source: facebook

Marius Markowski | Source: facebook

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Christ in the House of Levi by Paolo Veronese

1573 - Paolo Veronese - Christ in the House of Levi

In 1573 one of the great Venetian masters Paolo Veronese (Paolo Cagliari of Verona) finished Christ in the House of Levi. The painting depicts a merry scene, with courtly jesters and the elite of Venice surrounding Christ for a marvelous feast.

Originally this painting was titled Last Supper, however, since the painting was created in the height of Counter Reformation it received much criticism from the Holy Office of the Inquisition because it showed creatures so close to Christ. This prompted accusations of Veronese for impiety, and demanded he make the necessary changes at his own expense. Unwilling to solve this problem by destroying the painting, Veronese simply changed the name of the painting to Christ in the House of Levi which implied a much less formal evening.

The painting depicts an open loggia with giant columns and three monumental arches. In the background through the arches one can see more magnificent buildings of Venice cityscape.

Christ in the House of Levi is 18’6″ x 42’6″, clearly a colossal sized painting, and is painted with oil on canvas. It resides in Galleria dell’Accademia, Venice.

1573 - Paolo Veronese - Christ in the House of Levi

1573 – Paolo Veronese – Christ in the House of Levi

A Young Girl Defending Herself Against Eros by Adolphe William Bouguereau

Adolphe William Bouguereau - A Young Girl Defending Herself Against Eros

In 1880 Adolphe William Bouguereau painted A Young Girl Defending Herself Against Eros. The french name for this painting is Jeûne Fille Se Défendant Contre L’Amour. The piece is considered Bouguereau’s finest work, and made it’s way to New York to be bought by Henry Flagler. If you’re having trouble remembering who that is, he was the co-founder of Standard Oil, the other founder was John D. Rockefeller.

The painting depicts Eros, the Greek god of love, attempting to pierce the young girl who’s defending herself from his spells. It seems to be a playful scene, with a hint of a smile on the young womans face. The scene takes place in an idyllic countryside, the surrounding countryside of his French studio was the source.

A Young Girl Defending Herself Against Eros is an oil painting on a 61×43 inch canvas. At present, the painting sits in North Carolina at the Kenan House. It’s remarkable to note that in the mid 90s the painting was insured for $2 million while on tour.

Bouguereau was a man of humble beginnings. He had to support himself by painting labels for locals, bookkeeping for a wine merchant, and painting portraits of local patrons while he attended Ecole des Beaux Arts. He was actually very near the last applicant that year to be accepted into the school.

As an artist, Bouguereau, born in La Rochelle, France, on November 30th 1825, exhibited in the salons of Paris for over 50 years until his death in 1905. Bouguereau was predicted by Edgar Degas and Claude Monet to be considered the most remembered artist by the turn of the 21st century, thought it is reported that they detested him because he represented the exact form of traditional institutional art they were breaking down with their own art. Do you think he was one of the most remarkable artists of history?

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Game Lapse by Jaybo Monk

Jaybo Monk is a man whom you meet and never forget. His honesty and sincerity is what makes his art so pure, so essential.

There have been many late nights where I’ve debated the purpose of art with him; Jaybo always has the romantic stance that art should be created to express what must be expressed. Everything is just secondary.

It’s easy to see this in his work. It’s also easy to see into his minds eye with his work.

Recently, on 16.08.2012 Jaybo created some of the most extraordinary pieces of art I’ve had the pleasure to look at for a solo show at Rook & Raven Gallery / London. They explore white space and shapes with an emphasis on the olympics.I perticularily love how he manages to create a surreal exposé  of the lustful imagination mixed with wild beasts… and the muscle structure.

How do you like them?

Photo source: Jaybo Monk | http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151826326030476.486571.40186475475&type=1

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Artist Review: Jaybo Monk

 

You get pieces of art that are pretty close replications of real life, evoke a sense of 3D, and really give a feeling of something that you can see happening. Well, Jaybo Monk touches briefly, in little corners of his paintings on these elements, fits together pieces that really make sense on their own, but what I find are his strongest suits are that he pushes the freak into what one would feel is quite natural and ordinary; freakishly and radically awesome.

It really is works of art like this that inspire me. Where does it come from? Where has it spilled forth from? What was on your mind? How did you get those strokes? How did you blend there? Did you create this from space? Those are just the first few that come from looking at the above photograph. Lord only knows how many more would come if I could actually behold one of them in front of me.

From what I’ve read, Jaybo is from a strong graffiti background, he grew up in France, but ran away from home to settle in Germany, Berlin to be exact. His biography on Circle Culture will take you into more detail, but its very interesting to hear how he has shaped the scene of that area from the ground, grass roots up.

A friend just told me, because I was lamenting about how far away my art is from this, that to get to the point where my art speaks like this, it takes many many hours, days, years of work. I optimistically put the fear of never getting to this point out of my mind and push on. Another friend once told me that if I spend to much time looking at all the other works out there, I’ll become overwhelmed with how much there is and start getting dizzy. I think that’s how I’m feeling right now. This is just such an amazing body of work Jaybo has.

Just wow. You know? wow. Shading, contortion, vivid body parts mixed with spaces of plain white. Ease and confusion. Words just keep flowing. Comprehension doesn’t follow suit. I found a great interview done by Remi Rough at Graffuturism, where I got the final picture of Jaybo from. But the interview does reach some interestingly quirky points, but mainly showcases some of Jaybo’s brilliant works. Maybe you’ve seen some of them before? Maybe it’s just in your dreams…

Also, the mixture of materials that he uses. To me, it looks like theres oils, water colors, pens, and spray paint? It is just confusing to me. Amazingly confusing. So much does it speak that its confusing.

I hope this opens up new doors for you as it has me, finding or learning of such style, such works just inspires me to the point of utter madness, a circling spiraling into madness that I can’t stop smiling about until I’m upside down and…

What do you think about Jaybo?

 

Here are a few videos to watch Jaybo’s process from Urban Art Core

This one is from Urban Art Core as well

Vancouver Art Gallery – Robert Adams, Song Dong, Emily Carr

Today I finally used my two year membership to the Vancouver Art Gallery (aka VAG) for the first time since I got it in October. To be honest, I was a little bit disappointed. I have been a membership holder before, and I will most definitely be again, but the show this time wasn’t to the caliber I had hoped it would be.

To me, an art gallery is there to illuminate marvelous pieces of art, expression and meaning into a whole new world of wonder. One should leave wondering what they had just seen, and how it was even possible. AND, with an incredible urge to attempt that art themselves, or at least write a lengthy blog about it. But this time, it wasn’t until I reached the 4th floor that I was mesmerized. This is the first time this has ever happened to me at the VAG, but no doubt, something of the sort will happen again.

I often ponder how I can be a critic, when art itself is pure creative. It’s everything from preparing, thinking, seeing, believing, and determination that goes into each piece of art, but there is also something about great art, and something about just art, which I feel there is a line between.

In the same breath, how can I dare criticize something so delicate as the past? It is not really my part in this world I don’t think.

Please don’t misunderstand my sentiment; there were many many pieces of Robert Adams that absolutely floored me as pieces of extreme beauty. The one above wasn’t in the collection, but many others were. It was explained that Robert spent most of his time photographing North Americas West, but there were other photographs in there too.

Apparently his work is interpreted to be of how man has altered nature. Glorious (some may think) blemishes on the otherwise vegetative landscape that are labelled with the words of progress. Do you believe this is progress?

Who knows. I do not dare decide that answer for myself, for I feel if I were to say no it’s not progress, I would be turning my head away from everything that is in my day that builds up to bring me here today. I am in fact writing this to you on the premise of progress: a computer. And if I were to say it is progress, how could I explain the way we neglect mother nature, blindly turn away from the facts of overpopulation, or waste, or poverty. Or what about the great class spread that we (my fathers and mothers before me) have worked so laboriously ahead of me to eliminate?

That shall be my rant for today on the world.

On to the rest of the gallery. The second floor was an instillation done by Song Dong. They say he’s an ‘avant guard instillation artist from China.”

Walking through his exhibit, it felt like I was walking through one of the millions of pawn shops, or junk stores you come along on the road. It was amazing how it was organized though, like a maze of dominoes. It was all just JUNK, displayed along the floor in neat symmetric matrices arranged according to function. From toothpaste tubes, to gardening tools, to old cardboard boxes used for pills, to teddy bears, to shoes and clothes, and plastic bottles or even the re-useable bags they’re making us buy at the grocery stores now. It was pretty wild to see how he arranged everything. Just taking the random things we all know and see and turning it into a fantastic spectacle of absurdity!

The one thing that caught my eye, at the very end of it, was a chalk board, with a girl drawn in chalk on it, partly smudged out along the edges, but for the most part still very visible. I wonder how he came to have these things?

The 4th floor had an exhibit that was ‘In Dialog with Emily Carr‘, which was astounding. Over the time that I have spent getting to know Emily through the Art Gallery, it has made me greatly respect the woman.

Today there was a place to sit down and you could hear a dialog between one of the artists and her (I suspect it was an Emily impersonator since she’s been dead for some 60years) about the difference between now and then. It was amazing to hear her amazement about how one of her paintings sold for just over 2million dollars! Apparently there was lots of time how her paintings couldn’t even sell. Where she had lost all hope, and how she struggled to make ends meat. I guess this is the woe of all artists isn’t it?

$2.16Million Piece

The guy illuminated how green never sells paintings… It kind of made me think a bit about my next paint purchase!

Emily‘s work is both exact and abstract to me. It has a remarkable beauty in that it illuminates certain aspects of the life, without forgetting the other parts of the picture, while still remaining somewhat… well, just amazing I guess is how to explain it. Her work has now become very recognizable to me, since the VAG houses the biggest and most extensive Carr collection known.

What makes me sad is knowing how an artist like this was never appreciated in her time because of the fact that a. she was a woman in a mans world, and 2. she bridged a racial barrier that hadn’t ever really been attempted or valued at the time.

One is very tempted to say we will never come across something like this again in our time, but that would be much to naive for a person that knows better. Most certainly it is happening now as we speak. Who knows, maybe we already know the person personally!

Artist Review: CT

Today I’m going to showcase a dear friend of mine, CT. He’s been painting for a while now, and his stuff is stunning in a strict kind of way. Usually I’m more into abstract messy stuff, but this is really good, solid work that I like, so you get to see.

These are the three photos that I have, you can contact me if you’re interested in buying anything.

How do you like the works?

Artist Review: David Choe

Sometimes you come across things that just make you think to yourself: “I need to step on the gas, shift into a gear higher, let my mind free from all constraints, and become more totally awesome than I already am.”

Looking at art by David Choe does this for me.

His interest in not only in abstracting the normal, but in blending that with colors and angles that make you feel like your in a weirdly distorted mirror room simply amaze me.

I’ve just recently read an issue of Juxtapoz magazine, where he was featured, and guest edited the entire issue. It is chalked full of art, thoughts, reminiscences, history, and antics of David that inspire me in their own right, let alone the art that graces the pages.

Who really knows where an artist starts, I guess it would be some time between your parents deciding to not use a condom, the sounds you hear in the womb, and the influences you have at the time of puberty, but for David, it seems he’s grown up on a steady diet of graffiti, porno’s, and mixed media. Looking at his website, you’ll find he uses every type of medium possible: oils, mixed, walls, sculptures, fotos, and drawings… which I guess is what an artist should and does create with.

Gambling problems, sticky fingers, women, kindness, and amazing dedication to living a life for the sole purpose of exploring your mind seem to be David‘s characteristics; which inspire me a lot.

I don’t think its that he just uses a lot of different mediums, or that he has exceptional talent, or that he’s not trying to fit into a type of style, but its that he tries with the vigor of a porno star with everything that he tries; he lives, breathes, fucks, drools, and smells of art… and I love it.

Check out his stuff, be influenced, and tell me how much you adore him just like I do!

Oh, and by the way, he’s a world wide traveler, but in LA from all that I can gather at the moment.