The Provocative Pop Art of Ben Frost

Melbourne, Australia-based contemporary artist Ben Frost has a pop art aesthetic with a subversive, confrontational spirit. In some of his most recent work, Frost essentially uses mainly (junk) food and pharmaceutical packaging as a canvas for his bold illustrations inspired by pop culture, Roy Lichtenstein, and manga. His mashups are not random, though… Frost exhibits…

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The Fun-Loving Photos of James Popsys

Australian photographer James Popsys has some serious skills behind both the lens and his MacBook Pro, but his work is anything but serious. Popsys is not one to indulge in self-importance or highbrow projects but rather focuses on manipulating scenes from everyday life into playful, sometimes ironic works. That’s not to say his approach is…

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Digital Delusions of Anthony Hearsey

Photo manipulation, we’re talking done really well, is a skill unto itself. With the proliferation of Photoshop use, the average viewer seems to take manipulated photos for granted these days. Photo manipulation software is literally everywhere, including on cheap or even free apps on phones in people’s pockets. But the upper crust of Photoshop users…

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A Smile Is Worth a Thousand Words

Not speaking to strangers is a lesson learned early and practiced often, but this fascinating ongoing photography series flies in the face of such prudence. Mumbai-based photographer Jay Weinstein attempts to break down barriers during this particularly vigilant time in world history, one smile at a time. Aptly titled “…so I asked them to smile”,…

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Stop, Think, Make

Transforming everyday objects into art holds a special place for us. It harkens back to childhood thoughts, when our minds wandered while staring out the car window at cloud formations that looked like other things. Or when we’d doodle with no purpose other than to document our own whimsical musings. These days, artists apply conceptual…

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From Crest to Trough: Majestic Wave Photos by Warren Keelan

With summer almost upon us, we long for some beach days in the not-so-distant future. Which brings us to the awe-inspiring work of Australian seascape and ocean photographer Warren Keelan. If you’ve ever tried to capture photos of ocean waves, you know it’s no easy feat… much more difficult than it looks, with Mother Nature’s…

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The Secret of Nature’s Beautiful Designs… in Color

In an effort to come full circle in recognizing the very polarizing Common Core testing in New York over the past two weeks, we bring you another “math meets art” post. This time it’s the work of Venezuelan architect and illustrator Rafael Araujo, and his very technical approach to capturing the mathematical brilliance of nature.…

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These Are Not Photos: Incredibly Realistic Paintings by Joel Rea

Hyper-realistic drawing and painting is an incredible skill that really gives us pause. Especially in the age of high resolution cameras on just about everyone’s phone, and the proliferation of Photoshop-aided art. We sort of take realistic and surrealistic views for granted, but when we look at super-realistic art done by hand, like the work…

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The Happy Art of Peechaya Burroughs

Make no mistake, the captivating portfolio of Thailand-born, Sydney, Australia-based photographer/designer Peechaya Burroughs is no child’s play. Though her work is certainly whimsical and intrinsically approachable, it boasts no less artistic merit than fine art of a different nature. Burroughs’s minimalist approach to mostly hand-manipulated works is striking in a vast ocean of tricked out…

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Real Life Disney Royalty

Disney characters are often the subject of artwork in this particularly pop culture-centric moment in time (here and here and here), so it’s no surprise that someone has envisioned what Disney royalty might look like in “real life”. And that someone is Melbourne, Australia-based Finnish designer/illustrator/art director/photo manipulator Jirka Vinse Jonatan Väätäinen. The rise of…

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