Doppelganger: Images of the Human Being

It’s no secret that the rise of the digital age has fundamentally adjusted traditional notions of who we are and how we wish to be perceived. We carefully curate our photos, choose our words and play with our history until it’s a more successful depiction of the self we want others to see. While the trend has been duly noted and analyzed in a variety of media, Doppelganger looks at the current trends in the depiction of human beings in art and design.

In the images and sculptures today, personal identities are being intensified, altered or created through the use of techniques such as deformation and construction and deconstruction as well as the obliteration of classical proportions, visual traditions and what is generally considered beautiful and fashionable. Each of Doppelganger’s seven chapters explores a different creative approach: Embody, Dissolve, Appeal, Reshape, Perform, Deform, and Escape. A compelling collection of groundbreaking permutations of the human form, this book is an eye-catching pick for your bookshelf.

March 22, 2012 | By: Shayna Kulik

Leslie Friedman

Leslie Friedman was born in Providence, and while she currently lives in Philly, she still considers RI her home. During the summer of 2002, Leslie learned how to silk-screen at the basement printmaking workshop of the lauded arts non-profit, AS220. She received a BA in Political Science from Brown University in 2005 where she concentrated her studies in political theory and civil liberties. From 2005 to 2007, Friedman lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and built a printmaking studio in the historic neighborhood of San Telmo. She describes these years as fundamental to her maturation from poster maker to print artist. In the Fall of 2009, she began an MFA program in printmaking at the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia.

Friedman’s alter-ego, LesliePVD, embodies the values embedded in Providence’s printmaking culture: the appreciation of industrial craft, the belief in DIY/punk ethos and the acknowledgment of the political and social historical significance of prints in promoting civil liberties. By blurring the line between rock n’ roll posters and fine art, LesliePVD aims to inspire spontaneous discussion and debate over complex contemporary environmental and social issues. Through humor, bold colors and collage, her serigraphs are funny, awkward, honest, expressive combinations of texture that awaken the democratic spirit.

February 28, 2012 | By: Shayna Kulik

Andy Smith

Born and raised in Norfolk, Andy Smith studied illustration at the University of Brighton and the Royal College of Art, London. Graduating in 1998 he quickly established a client list of advertising, publishing and editorial clients including Orange, Mercedes, McDonalds, The Guardian, Expedia, Sony, Vodafone, Random House and Penguin Books, directing Run London a commercial for Nike in 2000.

His work combines illustration and typography to create images that have humor, energy and optimism and all are executed with a handmade, hand-printed, tactile feel. Quirky characters find themselves in absurd situations, often with a large piece of lettering nearby. When not producing commercial work for clients Andy can be found in the studio screen printing books and posters about Fatty, the Target People and the Hot Dog. He has exhibited in the UK, USA, France and Australia. He lives and pretends to work by the sea in Hastings, East Sussex. His favorite color is blue.

February 24, 2012 | By: Shayna Kulik

Book Review: The World of Ribbonesia

Baku Maeda had always used brushes and pens to create his artwork, until one day he became entranced by the simple beauty of ribbons. The lover of animals then began to fashion a menagerie of creatures out of the bending and twisting of ribbon, giving birth to his line Ribbonesia and capturing the world’s attention with his delicate sculptural creations.

It’s always amazing to see the fantastic works that can be transformed from the simplest of materials and Baku Maeda’s innovative works are no exception. The World of Ribbonesia captures the beauty of Maeda’s works in exquisite detail as well as offering up tutorials in how to create your very own ribbon animals, plants and flowers.

February 23, 2012 | By: Shayna Kulik

Phil Dunne

Phillip Dunne is an artist from northside Dublin, Ireland. For the past five years, he’s been working as an artist on a variety of commercial, personal and published art projects. His distinctive style of colorful, intricate work is a combination of traditional and digital mediums such as pencil, pen, watercolor, ink and digital coloring and rendering using computer applications. He is a member of Depthcore, an international modern art collective.

February 18, 2012 | By: Shayna Kulik

Behind the Zines: Self-Publishing Culture

Social networks may dominate today‘s headlines, but they are not the only platform radically changing the way we communicate. Creatives such as designers, photographers, artists, researchers, and poets are disseminating information about themselves and their favorite subjects not via predefined media such as twitter or blogs, but through printed or other self-published projects—so-called zines. Those who publish zines are mostly interested in sole authorship, namely that all components including text, images, layout, typography, production, and distribution are firmly in the hands of one person or a small group.

With a cutting-edge selection of international examples, Behind the Zines introduces the broad range of zines that exists today. The book examines the key factors that distinguish various zines and introduces projects in which the printing process significantly influences aesthetics or in which limited distribution to a small, clearly defined target audience becomes part of the overall concept. Behind the Zines not only documents outstanding work, but also shows how the self-image of those who make zines impacts the scene as a whole.

February 16, 2012 | By: Shayna Kulik