Brian Lewis
ART & EDUCATION BLOG
Contemporary Artists that Inspire
Tyler Hildebrand
Artist Tyler Hildebrand does not shy away from the harsh realities of contemporary American culture. Through a variety of mixed media including paintings, sculpture and film Hildebrand strives to represent grotesque elements of society, even if it means revealing an uncomfortable and oftentimes crude environment. By exposing the perverse, depraved and degenerate truths of the world around us, Hildebrand produces work that is often tough to look at, sometimes witty and always truthful.
Clint Woods
Woods is a multi-media artist with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in printmaking from Northern Kentucky University and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Cincinnati, College of DAAP in Electronic Art. Woods art works may vary in size but what does not vary are the intricate details he captures in each individual piece. The viewer is drawn in closely to the works to scrutinize the slightest fine pen strokes that create one world inside yet another. Amazing does not even begin to describe the surgeon-like precision with which Woods carefully draws such fantastical imagery.
Ron Mueck
Mueck is an Australian hyperrealist sculptor working in the United Kingdom. He began his career as a model maker and operating puppets. he began working in animatronics and creating realistic props. in 1996 Mueck made the transition into the world of fine art.
Patricia Piccinini
Piccinini is an Australian artist who works in a variety of media, including painting, video, sound, installation, digital prints, and sculpture. In 2014 she was awarded the Artist Award by the Melbourne Art Foundation's Awards for the Visual Arts. Piccinini uses her artistic practice as a forum for discussion about how technology impacts upon life. She is keenly interested in how contemporary ideas of nature, the natural and the artificial are changing our society. Specific works have addressed concerns about biotechnology, such as gene therapy and ongoing research to map the human genome.
Shepard Fairey
Shepard Fairey is an American contemporary street artist, graphic designer, activist and illustrator who emerged from the skateboarding scene.He became widely known during the 2008 U.S. presidential election for his Barack Obama "Hope" poster.
Jennifer McCurdy
Ceramic artist Jennifer McCurdy lives on the island of Martha's Vineyard. She has been working with porcelain for over thirty years. For the last few years, she has been working with structural questions. How thin can the high fire porcelain be before it collapses in the fire? How much can it be cut away and still maintain structural integrity? How can the structural form be integrated with the visual, as in nature? How can the movement of the potter's wheel and the fire of the kiln be reflected in the finished piece, which is rock-hard and permanent?
Ryan Labar
Ryan LaBar is from Great Falls Montana. He received a degree in Biology and Art from Gonzaga University in Spokane Washington. In 1999 he moved to Helena Montana and set up a studio. Ryan received his MFA at the University of Nebraska Lincoln Ryan recently relinquished his position as the program director of the LH Project and made a move to Portland OR where he will set up his new studio.
David Mack
David W. Mack is an American comic book artist and writer, known for his creator-owned series Kabuki and for co-creating with Joe Quesada the deaf Marvel Comics superhero Echo. Mack is known for his unique painted and collage-like work. Mack is from Cincinnati, OH and attended Northern Kentucky University.
Daniel Arsham
Arsham’s work blurs the lines between art, architecture and performance, and explores issues of natural versus manufactured or intention versus happenstance. Through sculpture, drawing and performance, Arsham challenges our perceptions of physical space in order to make architecture perform the improbable. The surfaces of walls appear to melt, erode and ripple. Animals contemplate the emergence of floating shapes in nature. Sculptures from antiquity are infused with rigid, geometric forms.
Hyungkoo Lee
Born 1969 in Pohang, Korea, Hyungkoo Lee lives and works in Seoul, Korea. Lee is well known for his quirky art based on his research of physiognomy, and has again deconstructed anatomy
as part of his ‘face trace’ exhibition. In his exhibition titled "Animatus" the Korean artist executes detailed anatomy research on non-existing animals from cartoons.