So, after months of construction, a whole bunch of insanely beautiful interior design/styling by Emily Henderson, and some art curation by me, I’m finally off to LA this week for the opening of The Fig House {my fancy shoes are already packed!} Here are two of the artists whose work is hanging on the turquoise walls as we speak: American artists Kai Samuels Davis, and Clare Elsaesser. They are both such talented painters… oh, and they just happened to be married to eachother!

So good! I’ll be showing the work of all ten artists for the rest of the week, leading up to the opening on Thursday – if I’m not too partied out I’ll put up a recap/instagram post on Friday!

Oh, that Frida! Yep, I came across that image and was instantly sold on the work of Spanish artist/illustrator Maria Hergueta… I love the feminine feel to her work {don’t even get me started on that cross-stitched illustration!}. But it’s not all about the ladies… nope, she’s got a little something for the kids and fellas, too:

… and the men:

: )

Oh. I really love this – especially those ice cream cones {and not just because it’s perfectly coordinated with my site design}

004 GELATOLOGY – Change and Persistence

Everything melts or nothing changes?
This booklet explores visual and conceptual analogies between ice-cream and geology.
Semifreddo cakes, rocky cones and creamy desserts in vibrant colours are models of cause-effect relations and incredibly slow transformations. The mixed media technique attempts to evoke the layering of experiences and the metamorphosis of our states of mind.

The text is the result if a cut and paste operation from a milestone of Geology:
the Charles Lyell’s “Principles of Geology – Being an attempt to explain the former changes of the earth’s surface, by reference to causes now in operation”, London 1830.

Limited edition of 100 copies. Digital + risograph print / size: 19 x 28,5 cm.

This is the work of Studio Fludd – a collective based in Venice. They are Matteo Baratto, Caterina Gabelli, Clara Giaquinto, Sara Maragotto, Valeria Sanguin.

{via art hound}

I feel sad. It’s amazing that a few simple brushstrokes, and a bunch of brilliant color choices can evoke so much emotion. These are the gorgeous portraits of American artist Tyler D. Graffam. He is currently in the third year of his BFA. Wait… what?! Yep, he’s still a student. Well, I for one cannot wait to see what the future holds for him. Good luck, Tyler… although I don’t think you’ll need it.

Hey! Today is 11.12.13… and speaking of important dates… I don’t know about you, but I reallllllly want to remember when “ice cream for breakfast day” is… and now I can thanks to this hilarious, chalkboard-esque, hand-lettered calendar! The “Calendar of Silly Holidays” is brought to you by Brooklyn based art/design studio Dirty Bandits, which was founded by artist/designer Annica Lydenberg. So, if you’re doing any early holiday shopping you might want to throw one of these bad boys {it’s only $12!!} in your cart… especially if you know someone who still owns a fanny-pack {Ok Australians, stop giggling…. that’s something else in this hemisphere!}

I wrote about Jim Naughten and his ongoing series, titled Re-Enactors, three years ago. In an almost painterly fashion, he photographs people who “step out of their routine daily lives and transform into historical characters from the First and Second World Wars, often with such vigor and obsessive attention to detail that it’s hard to imagine them in contemporary settings.” I thought this work was very appropriate for today… lest we forget.

Sigh…so many rosy cheeks… I’m feeling a little flushed myself!

This is the third time that I’ve written about Toronto based artist Kris Knight. His work is just so hauntingly beautiful that I literally cannot help myself. When I saw this body of work, titled Secrets Are Things We Grow, I was blown away. His color choices are stunning, and his subjects are so, so beautifully painted… and those delicate florals… gorgeous! Here is the description of this series:

With “Secrets Are The Things We Grow” Canadian artist Kris Knight paints a cast of characters who consciously conceal aspects of themselves from those around them. They hide truths of who they are, where they come from and whom they love. They fear shame, rejection, gossip and embarrassment. They whisper stories but never want the story to be about them. Secrets have roots, they have currency, they accumulate and grow with time; some are short lived, while others haunt generations. Knight’s character’s front, they put on airs, and they pass; some bluff while others reveal their confessions without saying a word.

Oh, to be one of those adventurous little girls… I’d love to peek inside these crazy, flowering lumps! Delicate, organic, and totally bizarre. Yep, an excellent combination that happens to be the work of New Hampshire based ceramics artist Megan Bogonovich. Love.

{via Elsa Mora‘s fabulous blog, Art is a Way}

This is the gorgeous work of LA based artist Dave Muller. The paintings shown here are my favorite pieces {acrylic on paper} from his show “Death Disco”, that was exhibited at The Approach in London last winter. I honestly don’t know what I love most… the drums, the stacks of CDs, the disco ball… or maybe it’s the amazing combination of images, not to mention the scale of it all! Ok. It’s the disco ball. So, that covers the “Disco” part of “Death Disco”… here’s where the “Death” comes in:

“Death Disco expands upon several familiar and more recent threads of the artist’s musically obsessed and multivalent art practice, namely death and celebration. Muller addresses feelings of loss and excess, reveling in a sort of joyful morbidity. Through depictions of personal yet emblematic objects, from unoccupied drum sets and stacks of CDs by famous musicians (recently deceased) to his own family photographs, Muller commemorates subjects who are conspicuous in their absence. Though social at his core, Muller avoids direct portrayal of people, choosing instead to direct our attention to the objects and ephemera left in their wake. Tracing elements of humanity through the unique stamp we each leave on the material world, he constructs an intricate multi-faceted portrait of both individuals and society as whole.”

{via Artsy Forager on Pinterest}

Houses, and wooden chairs, being taken over by geometric, glass-like crystal formations? I’m in. These are the watercolor drawings of Los Carpinteros, a collective {Marco Antonio Castillo Valdés and Dagoberto Rodriguez Sanchez} that live and work between Madrid and Havana. Their portfolio is full, and I mean FULL of fantastic things! In fact, I found them on Booooooom yesterday, through an entirely different body of work. Naturally, I popped over to their site for a closer look… and found piece after piece after piece after piece that I LOVED! Of course, what with my soft-spot for houses, this was the work that I had to show.

{via Booooooom}