Exploding boxes and really old envelopes … who needs fancy paper? Not Brooklyn based artist Allan Bealy! Allan has been creating collages for years, and yes, I really want to spend a day sifting through all of the thousands of bits and pieces he clearly must have in his studio. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go and check the mailbox for potential art supplies.

ps. If your email inbox isn’t artsy enough for you, sign up for my weekly email “Art For Your Inbox”. It’s just a little recap of the week in case you missed anything. Sign up right here.

Okay, who wants to go on summer vacation with this guy? Me too! I often post about painters whose work looks photographic… well today I had to do double-take for the opposite reason. Yep, these saturated dreamlands are photographs, not paintings. This is the work of Australian photographer Ben Thomas, and yes, I would happily plan my next holiday using his colorful portfolio as my itinerary … looks like we’re going everywhere from Coney Island to Dubai! Happy Friday.

psst… Some of Ben’s work is part of a summer group show currently on view at Duran | Mashaal in Montreal.

Portraits, painting, petals AND embroidery? Oh, so many of my favorite things (done beautifully) all in one spot! This is the gorgeous work of Istanbul based artist Rana Balca Ülker. I wasn’t able to find out very much about Rana, but I do know that I love her work.

{Thanks to artist Melanie Biehle for pointing me to Rana’s work.}

Ooooh! So many elements, all living together in beautifully composed harmony. This is the work of Los Angeles based artist Chelsea Dean. Here’s just a tiny list of some of the bits in these three pieces alone – hand-cut photographs, wood veneer, decorative paper, foam core, washi tape, mat board, found objects from abandoned homesteads – and that’s just the beginning. Have a look at Chelsea’s artist statement:

“[My] work embodies systems that erode. I salvage history, suspending the architecture of Southern California in time with a process of carefully controlled chaos. By combining my photographs with experimental printmaking, drawing, and collage techniques, I elevate the conflict between order and entropy. My most recent body of work focuses around my fascination with abandoned Jackrabbit Homesteads in Wonder Valley where I continue to meditate upon the allure of beauty and decay. I gather and incorporate discarded elements from these spaces, assigning new meaning with the addition of gold elements and embellished patterns. I thoughtfully document and reconstruct these spaces by dimensionally layering information, offering the viewer a spatially rich experience that illuminates the original site.”

Okay, I have to say it again… ooooh!

Prince, Madonna, and misogyny … well, you know this is going to be interesting. This is the gorgeous mixed media collage work of LA based artist Yasmine Diaz, from a series titled “One Way Or Another”. It is beautiful and intense, and with that I’m going to hand it over to Yasmine to explain:

“This series of collage and mixed media works on paper is inspired by the 3 months Diaz spent in Yemen when she was 15. Fragmented memories are reconstructed with imagery collected from magazines, books, personal archives, and online research.
Having only known the streets of Chicago, the experience of traveling to Yemen was a surreal contrast of the worlds she was still struggling to make sense of. As a teenager in the 90s, MTV was a daily priority. Artists like Salt-N-Pepa unapologetically affirmed that a woman’s sex life is “None of Your Business,” while Madonna boldly claimed her independence and sexuality. Their defiance left a mark on a teenage girl covertly rebelling against the misogyny of her family and community.
In the highlands of Yemen, everyone knows everyone’s business and then some. It was there that Diaz learned, via gossip, who she was arranged to be married to. It was also there that she resolved to eventually escape the fate of a forced arranged marriage and a life of oppressive misogyny and limited freedom.”

Oh, that seahorse. These exquisite paintings, paying homage to bits and pieces of old neon signs, are the work of Seattle based artist Kellie Talbot. Here are a few words from her website about her work:

“Talbot’s work revolves around the landscape of American artifacts, craftsmanship and history. Signs and typography, architecture, industry, cemeteries and other emblems of society are the inspiration for her oil paintings. The rust and decay in the work aren’t negatives. They are both an elegy and a hope.”

Lovely. We could all use a little hope, am I right? Happy Monday.

Well, I just found my new weekend wardrobe! These lovely oil paintings on paper are the work of American artist Sophie Treppendahl. They’re part of a series titled, “Clothes I Like Owned by People I Like”. I like them too! These jeans, shirts, and hats are hanging with a bunch of their stripy, patterned friends in Sophie’s solo show at Studio Allston Hotel in Boston, opening in August.

So, so, so smart! UK – now California based – artist Anthony Zinonos was one of the first collage artists I started following way back when. I was instantly grabbed by his sense of humor, ridiculously amazing use of colorful negative space, and his full-on ownership of ‘less being more’. Anthony was guest number TWO on my podcast, and it’s still one of my favorite episodes. May I suggest pulling a chair out into the sun and giving it a listen? We cover everything from UHU glue sticks to getting arrested. Seriously.

ps. I’m the keynote speaker at KolajFest in New Orleans TOMORROW NIGHT, and I feel like I owe my love of collage {and the way I’ve finally embraced my own collage work} to Anthony… because  hey, “If it buckles, it buckles.”

Oh, those Australians and their crazy, colorful flora! These vibrant, and succulent {see what I did there}, oil paintings are the gorgeous work of Wanda Comrie. Here’s why she does what she does:

“Responding to shadow play in domestic scenes and locally found botanicals, she reflects on the beauty and complexity that everyday living can provide and how social media images can distort distinctions of time, place and identity.”

Yep. Lovely.

I can already feel this post being ‘flagged’, but that’s kind of the whole point. Why should breasts be flagged as upsetting or scandalous? Anywho, I digress. This is the work of Berlin based photographer Annique Delphine from her series titled, “Objectify Me”. I absolutely love this work, and the artist statement that goes along with it:

“As women we are conditioned from an early age that what’s most important about us is the way we look and the way our body feels in someone else’s hands. We are nothing if we aren’t aesthetically pleasing and act humble about it. 
Breasts are the most objectified and sexualized part of women’s bodies. You can literally buy breasts as objects in novelty stores, on amazon, in sex toy stores, etc..
 When I came across these rubber balls made to look and feel like the real thing (only perfected in an eery unattainable way) I knew I had to photograph them. It is a playful way for me to explore my own internalized sexism, and how it has shaped my relationship with my own body. Because even though I know all images of women’s bodies I see in the media have been tampered with I’m still trying to look like those images. I know they aren’t the real thing but that doesn’t stop me from hating my body for being “just“ that.
 Media constantly dismembers, packages and displays women’s bodies for the purpose of selling really anything: cars, burgers, beer, weapons, … body issues, self-hate, insecurity … 
We have been objectified to such an extent that we are no longer seen as human beings but as sexual gadgets. We have been separated from our whole. Turned into a commodity. Femininity has been so far removed from our nature that it has become alien to people. Something they are afraid of. Something that needs to be controlled, censored or concealed as if it were a looming threat. But I believe the real threat is the imbalance that has been cultivated from this patriarchal society.” 

Bravo!

{Found via ‘The Other Art Fair”... btw, deadline for “The Other Art Fair” coming up in both LA and Brooklyn, is July 30th!}