England Hidalgo's Punk Art

Not only do I admire England Hidalgo for his skill with ink, but the straightforward messages about political and social issues in his illustrations are also to be revered. Hidalgo was born in the Philippines and studied a few semesters in Painting at the College of Architecture and Fine Arts at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, then moved to the U.S. in 1997. He currently lives and works in San Francisco.

From The Drawing Room:

"England Hidalgo presents to us a brand of realism that navigates through grit, manifesting the wider society by interrupting our complacency with it. A background in punk would describe the hyperbolic visual language that he mustered by reiterating images from the general media alongside iconic juxtapositions that, by principle, should elicit empathy; rather they create revulsion onto themselves in Hidalgo's terms."

Comments

Stone horsemen invade River Thames

It's not uncommon to see huge art installations on River Thames: a giant fiberglass sperm whale , a floating house , a massive wooden hippo . If you happen to be in London, head down to Nine Elms, on the south bank of the waterway, any day this month, and — if it's a low tide — you'll see a group of stone horsemen by world-renowned underwater sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor , rising above the riverside beach. The artwork, titled The Rising Tide , is part of the Totally Thames arts festival and is the first of its kind to be installed in the famed river. Four three-meter tall working horses with riders are shown — two of the riders are businessmen and two are children — though horse heads have been replaced with oil pumps. The sculptures are on display until the end of September.

Print out and fold your own paper cameras

Totally want to make some of these Olympus mirrorless cameras with my daughter this weekend. They don't take pictures, but they sure would make my little girl very happy. The Japanese company has a webpage for kids , and you can easily create three-dimensional paper models of the OM-D or the PEN Lite by printing and folding those PDF templates in the papercraft section . Enjoy! [h/t: Pop Photo ]

Weirdly Charming

If you’re a fan of art that makes you do a double-take, you need to check out Richard Brener . Based in the UK, Richard is an internationally collected artist who works primarily with ink, fineliners, and gouache. When you first see his pieces, they actually look pretty playful. Then you realize the entire canvas is packed with thousands of tiny, ghost-like shapes he calls "champs." They’re all squeezed together like commuters on a rush-hour train, and the level of detail is honestly mind-blowing. Richard spends hundreds of hours drawing these little guys over and over. It’s obsessive, very intentional, and a little bit wild. The cool part is that the longer you stare, the more the vibe shifts. Check out more photos below:

finding cain

Search This Blog