Piotr Dmochowski has posted a collection of sculptures and relief works by Zdzislaw Beksinski from 1955 - 1960. Although abstract, the artworks still reflect the atmosphere found in Beksinski's later more figurative works. The art is on display at the Dmochowski Gallery website here.
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An artist from Melbourne Australia, Mark creates drawings paintings and sculpture. On display at Mark's website are scenes of incredibly detailed nightmares brought to life through grotesque diorama sculptures. I'm unaware of the specific mediums used but he's made great use of organic resembling materials, perhaps wax? Along with amazingly textured surfaces for the walls and other objects. The scenes almost resemble something you'd find in a Brothers Quay or Jan Svankmajer animated film. These would be amazing to see brought to life through that style of stop motion animation. You can view these horrifying and fascinatingly detailed dioramas at Mark Powell's website and see additional works at Mark's flickr gallery.
The Maison d'Ailleurs Museum of science fiction, utopia and extraordinary journeys is hosting an excellent exhibit inspired by the writings of H.P Lovecraft found in his commonplace book. The exhibit was designed to commemorate the 70th anniversary of H. P. Lovecraft's death and will be on display from October 28th 2007 to April 6th 2008. Artists involved in the exhibit include H.R Giger, Philippe Caza, David Paleo, Fufu Frauenwahl, and dozens of other artists including myself. For a full list of artists involved and additional information about the exhibit, visit this page from the Maison d'Ailleurs website. If you can't make it to the show there is a collection of photos on display at flickr here. And for those interested, a billingual catalogue of works from the show (128 pages, 90 illustrations) is being made and will be available from Maison d'Ailleurs and Payot bookstores.
Vereschagin is a Russian born artist whose primary medium is painting and print making through the various techniques of etching. Much of his work falls into the Ex Libris category of illustration. His imagery explores a surreal fantasy world of unusual creatures and characters. The scene of the hot air balloon with the human headed basket to the right is one I found most interesting from the gallery.
An artist and printmaker living in London, Peter's work is, "illustrative in nature and is informed by the stories of politics, religion and war that are so prominent in the world today." The characters found in Rapp's art are often deformed or mutated in some way. I was reminded of the Chicago art group "The Hairy Who" in seeing this series of prints. View more artwork.
James Gleeson is Australia's "best known and most important Surrealist" whose work often delves into frightening territory.
"Since the 1970s Gleeson has generally made large scale paintings in keeping with the surrealist Inscape genre. The works outwardly resemble rocky seascapes, although in detail the coastline's geological features are found to be made of giant molluscs and threatening crustacae. In keeping with the Freudian principles of surrealism these grotesque, nightmarish compositions symbolise the inner workings of the human mind. Called 'Psychoscapes' by the artist, they show liquid, solid and air coming together and directly allude to the interface between the conscious, subconscious and unconscious mind." - quote source.
47 paintings by the artist. Be sure to double click the image a second time to view the largest version. Visit the following link to see additional works by the artist including paintings for sale.
Here is a strange selection of paintings where people wear boats, rats, race cars and airplanes as head gear. Apart from these fantastic paintings, Peluce is (was?) also a sculptor and animator. He created the "Mr. D.N.A" animation for the original Jurassic Park. Visit Peluce's gallery of paintings.
The subjects in these paintings concern the religious and mythological while displaying fantastic architecture in strange realms.
The desolate landscapes found in Ugarte's paintings contain mammoth structures long since abandoned. Looking across the hundreds of scenes I felt like an explorer left to travel across the remains of some long lost civilization.
The following quote from Michel Random as found here sums up the works quite well…
"…a world suddenly petrified and fossilized, an ancient human metropolis of gigantic, rigid massess and immovable, hostile blocks. These cubic cliffs of black concrete appear in strong contraposition to the rolling landscapes where an all-powerful nature progressively invades and reclaims its territory.
A striking contrast emerges between power and desolation, where neither humans nor animals persist. Like a burial shroud, an ochre light envelops this vision of the end of the world. Is this fantastic realism or a vision of the near-future? Beware of such visionaries, since they risk becoming the accurate forecasters of the future."
Ugarte's website can be found here.
Here is a shortcut towards his most recent paintings.
The Dmochowski Gallery website has a collection of black and white photography taken by Zdzislaw Beksiński. The pictures created during the 1950's provoke much of the same haunting and bizarre visions that his fantastic paintings and drawings would display in future decades. Click here to view the photographs.
London based artist and printmaker Brian McKenzie creates an incredible assortment of fantastic art. One of the more fascinating aspects of his work is the timeless nature of the imagery. Seeing many of these works without knowing where they came from it could be difficult to tell if they were made today or 400 years ago. From unusual bee keepers, bizarre beasts, underwater scenes of utter strangeness and many dreamlike and surreal scenarios involving all manner of creatures and characters, there is much to see in Brian's mysterious artworks.
View his gallery by clicking here.
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