Polish Animator/artist
Tomek Baginski (born January 10, 1976, Bialystok) is best known for his Oscar-nominated short film The Cathedral 2002 (right) and 'Fallen Art' or 'Sztuka Spadania' 2004.
See more Surreal Animation on YouTube.
Although I have already posted 'Darkness, Light, Darkness' by Jan Švankmajer, I believe that one can never get enough of ol' Švankmajer's Surrealist Stop-animation (this fan considers his work to be that of a genius).
So here I am again plugging another of my personal favourites: 'Dimensions of Dialogue 2'. I don't want to delve too deeply into what this film means to me as Švankmajer's surreal symbolism leaves his work open to interpretation, which is half of the fun (and I wouldn't want to taint anyones experience with my own perspective). Enjoy!
See more Surreal Animation on YouTube.
News from Chet Zar:
"Black Magick" available as a T-shirt!
100% cotton
Colour – Black
$20
+ $6.50 postage and handling
(Outside of the U.S. – $8)
Click on the image to order
Chet Zar is one of fifty artists featured in 'Metamorphosis'
News from Alex Grey:
Adam Jones, the lead guitar and filmmaker of TOOL has been working with Alex Grey on Vicarious, the first music video from TOOL's 10,000 Days album. Scheduled for release shortly before Christmas 2007, the video features Jone's signature surreal and dark dream vision blended with Grey's glimpses into a brighter world.
Alex Grey
'Net Of Being'
November 10th – December 31, 2007
MICROCOSM Gallery
542 W. 27 St.
4th Floor
NY, NY
Alex Grey is one of 50 artists published in our first book: Metamorphosis.
It's been a long time since my last Metamorphosis announcement, and I'd like to fill our readers in on beinArt Publishing developments. Metamorphosis Volume 2 is in the works and will feature another 50 Contemporary Surreal & Fantastic Artists (with no repeat artists from the first volume).
We have already confirmed the majority of artists for this publication, at this early stage, I will release the names of 10 featured artists.: HR Giger, Paul Booth, Ron English, Michael Hussar, Amanda Sage, Heidi Taillefer, Joseph Seigenthaler, Nelly Chichlakova, Jeremy Geddes & Suzzan Blac. I will release the full list of 50 names in a few months.
We are not accepting submissions for Metamorphosis Volume 2.
I also have very exciting news about our first book 'Metamorphosis'. We recently signed up with Tower Books (a huge Australian distributor) and Metamorphosis will be available in all good book shops across Australia before Christmas. We are also looking into international distribution, and Metamorphosis is selling steadily from our online shop. It looks like we will have to reprint much sooner than I had expected.
I have collected photos of 25 featured Artists holding their contributor's copies, which the artists have generously provided. In the photo on the right Ernst Fuchs is holding Metamorphosis, sitting with his two sons Michael Fuchs & Daniel Friedemann, also featured in Metamorphosis. This photo is of particular importance as Ernst Fuch's drawing is on the front cover of the book. Visit the Metamorphosis Forum for more photos of Artists with their books.
The Metamorphosis Forum also has links to Online Reviews as well as reviews and feedback posted by SurrealArtForum members. Feel free to join our forum and post your own feedback on Metamorphosis.
Edit – 22nd Jan 2008: All 50 artists for Metamorphosis 2 have been confirmed.
Brave Destiny The Movie is now available on DVD
63 minutes showing many works by artist participants including HR Giger and a host of others! The film covers the opening reception, the ball, showing behind the scenes on the work by the artists in putting together this colossal show.
The ball footage features original musical compositions by surrealist composer Peter Dizozza.
$19.98 plus $2 shipping in USA and Canada
$5 shipping worldwide
Payments by check or money order or by Paypal to W.A.H. Center
Send to: WILLIAMSBURG ART and HISTORICAL CENTER, 135 Broadway, Brooklyn, NY 11211
WORLD PREMIER
BRAVE DESTINY THE MOVIE, NOVEMBER 2007
Cocktails, buffet dinner and film showing, where it all happened – the Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, Brooklyn, USA. The Brave Destiny show at the Williamsburg Art and Historical Center (WAH Center) was the world’s largest show of living surrealist artists the world has ever seen. It also held the first international Grand Surrealist Ball in the United States, in the tradition of Surrealist balls put on by the Baroness de Rothschild in Europe up until the death of Dali. Many people, including European nobility, flew in from around the world for the one night event.
Imagine five floors of art of the finest international surrealist/visionaries in a French empire mansion in the world’s trendiest artists neighborhood – filled with magnificent art from catacombs to attic by nearly 500 artists! Add on a month of incredible living installations, dance, theater, a fashion show, ballet, and film. An extravaganza never likely to be equaled. This is the documentary.
The man behind Brave Destiny, Terrance Lindall published a long article about Brave Destiny on beinArt.org
Photo credit Joel Simpson
The opening for Chris Mars's solo exhibition will be held at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery on Saturday the 20th of October from 7 to 9pm.
The exhibition runs from October the 20th until November the 17th.
Jonathan Levine Gallery
529 West 20th Street, 9E New York, NY 10011
Open Tuesday through Saturday, 11am to 6pm
I am proud to announce that I recently purchased one of Suzzan Blac's original oil paintings (top right) for the beinArt Collection. I randomly came upon Suzzan's Myspace profile a while ago and was very impressed by the quality of her work. As I got to know Suzzan via email, I have watched her amazing technique advance and subject matter become more gruesome.
Months ago, when I interviewed Suzzan she generously gave me (and our readers) much insight into her world. Since then our continued correspondence has built a strong friendship.
I am very happy to have a piece of Suzzan's mind on my wall, and yes, the eyes do follow my guests and I around the lounge room Suzzan ;)
I'd also like to show our viewers Suzzan's latest painting (also spotted on myspace), which I think is her best painting yet (bottom right). I'm sure Suzzan will continue to grow as an artist and I know I will enjoy watching from the other side of the world.
Some of you may have noted my long absence on this blog after an explosion of articles over a period of months. My Personal Assistant and best friend Meg Smith will be publishing a majority of the Artist News blogs from now on as I work on Metamorphosis 2, but don't fret, I'll be back ;)
View some works from the 'beinArt Collection'. (Many recently purchased paintings & drawings haven't been added to the linked page).
Suzzan's artist statement:
I am an artist who paints the emotions. I am facinated with psychology, physiognomy and body language. My paintings are motivated by my anger, pain and frustration. My art concentrates mainly on the eyes and the mouths, because they are the most expressive features of human emotion. I prefer to use oil, because it is the only medium mobile enough to blend and create the smooth technique I require to produce such realism. Work begins with a simple, subconcious doodle and then I attack the canvas! "I scream at the world – and the world screams back at me"
Chet Zar will be curating and participating in “The Talking Board Show”, opening on October 20th at CoproNason Gallery in Santa Monica, CA.
Over 30 artists have created their own custom, functioning talking boards (ie: ouija boards) for this event. There will also be a live musical performance by The Ghastly Ones.
Chet Zar will be debuting new giclee prints of two of his most popular paintings, “Black Magick” and “I Want You” – 30×40” wrapped canvas on wooden stretcher bars, signed and limited to 20 each – price is only $450 each. Available only at CoproNason gallery.
“The Talking Board Show”
Group exhibition and Halloween party at CoproNason Gallery
2525 Michigan Ave. T5, Santa Monica, CA. 90404, 310.829.2156
Opening reception:
Oct. 20th, 2007 (show runs through Oct. 31st)
8pm- Midnight (come in costume!)
Free admission
Artists: Brandi Milne, Bruce Mitchell, Carrie Ann Baade , C. Blake Williams, Chantal Menard, Chet Zar , Christopher Owen, Chris Peters, Colin Burns, David Hochbaum, David Stoupakis , Ed Benedetto, Eric Pigors, Germs, Joe Vaux, John Haley III, Jose Lopes, Junkhauler, Kathie Olivas, Kevin Willis, Lola, Matthew Bone, Meats Meier , Michelle Waterman, Nathan Spoor , Orion, Travis Lindquist, Travis Louie , Ver Mar, Wilson Hsu, Zombienose
Viktor Safonkin’s exhibition entitled “The Inside Pressure” will be held in the H.R.Giger Museum, Gruyeres, Switzerland.
The exhibition opening takes place on the 3rd of November at 17:00 in the H.R.Giger Museum. The exhibition will proceed 6 months from the opening day.
All the paintings are borrowed from the collection of the Museum of Fantastic Art in Zeist, Holland.
Gallerie Museum H.R.Giger,
Chateau St. Germain,
CH – 1663 Gruyeres,
Tel. +41 (0)26 921 22 00
Updated web site of James Zar - www.jameszar.com
James Zar has run the gamut in all areas of the fine art and commercial art fields. Someone once said he’s one of the most diverse artists I’ve ever seen. He’s been a celebrated sports illustrator, a major movie artist, a classical still life master for galleries across the United States, and a mystic interpreter of unseen realities as demonstrated in his powerful surrealistic fantasy or dream art creations.
Education: Mr. Zar studied at the San Francisco Art Institutes, and privately with the late Keith Finch. Mr. Finch was the biggest influence in his current free wheeling fantasy work.
Shows and awards: Zar won first place in the Los Angeles Bicentennial show, a gold medal in the San Dimas Art Festival, and his work is part of the Raymond James Museum. He has had numerous one-man shows and he has been written up in Desert Magazine, New Mexico Magazine, Rendezvous Magazine, Southwest Profile and Southwest Art magazine.
At present Mr. Zar is focused on his mystical fantasy art, and with the help of his son, whom Zar refers to as, “The Great Chet” (a great artist in his own right) has set up a new web site and blog to try , as he says, “To share my life’s work and deepest heartfelt convictions with as many people as possible.”
James Zar also has a blog discussing the symbolism and his process in creating his paintings:
"My artwork, especially the fantasy work, is developed out of spontaneous feeling tones. A figure or a scene flashes across the palace of mind and insatiable curiosity draws me into a new adventure. This quality of being in the creative mode attracts great energy to it. Every new painting is in the womb of this new energy. I believe every self or person is an energy idea. This idea yearns to be expressed. God also yearns to know more about God through this life or expressed idea.Rarely does the meaning or teaching of a new painting make itself known to me until after it is finished. Then, often it will startle me with, 'Oh, that’s what that means!'" – (excerpt from James Zar's blog)
Mysterium Fidei – A Retrospective Catalog Highlighting Daniel Martin Diaz ’s Career
Paintings, Drawings, and Prints, 128-Page Cloth Hardback, 10×10 Full Color
Foreword by Gloria Fraser Giffords with Michael M. Brescia, Ph.D. and John David Long-Garcia, M.A.
"….broodingly personal…with a compelling, esoteric edge.” -The Los Angeles Times
A catalog highlighting Diaz’s career and newest body of work. In this collection of oil paintings, drawings, and prints, Diaz contemplates human suffering and one's undying faith in the afterlife. His mystical imagery reflects the influences of Byzantine iconography, Retabalos, Ex Votos, the Illuminati, ephemera, alchemy, and 16th-century anatomical engravings.
Gloria Fraser Giffords, author of Mexican Folk Retablos, is a art historian and conservationist of 17th Century Mexican religious art.
Michael M. Brescia, Ph.D. (Latin Am. Hist.), is Assistant Curator of Ethnohistory at Arizona State Museum andAssistant Professor of History at the University of Arizona.
John David Long-Garcia, M.A. (Phil., Theol.), is the Managing Editor of the Catholic Sun and an Adjunct Professor at the Kino Institute.
Special Edition Slipcase & Clamshell w/ Signed Etching will be available in Sept.
You can Pre-order and read more about the book by visiting Daniel Martin Diaz's personal site .
Please join Martina Hoffmann for a solo exhibition of her work.
The artist will be showing a selection of 40 paintings and limited edition canvas prints.
Hoffmann’s ‘Transcendent Realism’ offers the viewer a detailed glimpse into her inner landscapes that have been informed by the dream state, meditation and shamanic journeys. These realms reflect a deep reverence for the universal interconnectedness and interdependency of all life.
THE FENARIO GALLERY
Nov. 2, 2007 – Jan.1, 2008
Opening Reception: Nov. 2, 2007, 6 PM
881 Willamette St.
Eugene, Oregon 97401
(541) 687 –933
To view the complete show online after Nov 2, 2007, visit The Fenario Gallery
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