More Steampunk Architecture From Dave Trautrimas - The SpyFrost Project

above: detail of The Radiant Proliferator

David Trautrimas, the Canadian artist about whose steampunk-like architectural art, The Habitat Machines, I blogged about once before, has a wonderful new series of work called The Spyfrost Project.

The Spyfrost Project illustrates David's hypothesizing the origins of modern iconic appliances by reassembling them into top secret Cold War era military outposts. These hybrids of machinery and architecture stand as colossal weaponized ancestors to common objects, such as refrigerators, lawnmowers and washing machines.

Carbon Inversion Device:

detail:

Digital print on archival paper (framed). 30” x 20”. 2010. Edition of 14. $1400.00 each.

Micro Re-Instigator:

detail:

Digital print on archival paper (framed). 40” x 30”. 2010. Edition of 10. $2600.00 each.

Mnemonic Doppelganger:

detail:

Digital print on archival paper (framed). 22.5” x 35”. 2010. Edition of 12. $1725.00 each.

Seismic Conduction Tower (and detail):

Digital print on archival paper (framed). 20” x 30”. 2010. Edition of 14. $1400.00 each.

Storm Crown Mechanism:
detail:

Digital print on archival paper (framed). 40” x 30”. 2010. Edition of 10. $2600.00 each.

Terra Thermal Inducer:

detail:

Digital print on archival paper (framed). 35” x 22.5”. 2010. Edition of 12. $1725.00 each.

The Aurora Maker (and detail):

Digital print on archival paper (framed). 14” x 17”. 2010. Edition of 16. $925.00 each.

The Brilliant Device:

detail:

Digital print on archival paper (framed). 30” x 20”. 2010. Edition of 14. $1400.00 each.

The Fragment Accumulator (and detail):

Digital print on archival paper (framed). 20” x 30”. 2010. Edition of 14. $1400.00 each.

The Radiant Proliferator:

Digital print on archival paper (framed). 30” x 20”. 2010. Edition of 14. $1400.00 each.

The Toronto launch of his latest series will be opening at LE Gallery on Friday April 30th and the exhibition runs from April 28th to May 30th. In Europe, The Spyfrost Series will be exhibited at the Eckhart Gallery in The Hague, Netherlands from May 2nd to June 11th.

See David's Habitat Machines And Factories here.

The Masters Meet Ikea: Koya Abe and his Digital Art:

Digital artist Koya Abe's Project: Display 3 is a series of large c-prints that combine the human subjects of traditional European Portraiture paintings with images of contemporary interiors, creating an unusual contrast that is virtually impossible to ignore.






the project as explained by the artist:
PROJECT: Digital Art Chapter 3:

Visual technology and installation systems have been developed to create displays for the ideas of perception and desire. Human beings seek ways to portray themselves within a social context. In such they will seek to use representations of common desires to represent the way in which they seek to be perceived. People aspire to have an ideal display of their life. Ironically, at the same time they to seek to find their ideal life within the display. Modern commercialism realized this strategy and engaged the method of display in the same way that traditional portrait painters had in the past.






This project explores two apparently different periods and art traditions. One area is the tradition of European portrait painting and the other is the “art” of modern commercial presentation. In this context, the paintings are historical masterpieces intended for an exclusive audience and the other is a commercial interior showroom for the mass market. These two image sources were created in different physical, historical and conceptual terms, the “high art” of the aristocracy and the “consumer art” of an Ikea showroom. However, they have one area of common ground; an idea that I refer to as “display.” This is a key concept for both of these visual sources and is an underlying concept for art and visual history.









Koya Abe is a Japanese artist who has resided in New York City since 1994. He currently teaches photography and digital imaging in the Department of Art and Art Professions at New York University.

The NY Times said ..."Koya Abe is a Japanese-born artist with one eye on cultural stereotypes of the East and the other on the ''Wild West'' of Hollywood movies and tourist destinations. Using digital technology, he inserts Samurai warriors and other figures in traditional Japanese costume into re-enactments of American frontier gunfights and pioneer life. This cultural crossover is both amusing and disconcerting in its blend of mythologies."

Visit the artists site here.

Koya Abe

Meet Russian Photographer And Artist Oleg Dou

I can't even recall how I came across this young (and handsome!) photographer's unusual and haunting work, but I'm so glad I did. Be sure to visit his site for much more, I can only post so much.



OLEG DOU (1983-)
With staggeringly unique vision, Oleg Dou's work develops and pushes to the limit the idea of a body, evoked by the surrealists, as an object of subversions, distortions and other mutations that undermine its integrity.


Above: Self portrait

His photography has been celebrated in Paris and Moscow exhibitions, as well as such French and Russian publications as Le Monde2, PHOTO magazine and Fotomasterskaya magazine.

Often strange and disturbing, Dou's artistic search pushes to extreme limits, his subjects destroyed and massacred before the lens seemingly without pity...but take a look at their eyes and see if your interpretation is shaken.







Artist’s Statement:
"I was born in Moscow on the 19th of August in 1983. My mother was a painter, and I grew up spending a lot of time among artists — although I was not particularly interested in their activities.

I felt an urge toward the arts and creation some time ago when I was working as a designer, and I began seriously studying design. That’s how I “bumped into” photography."



"I worked hard to create my own style and technique. The main tool is computer photo-manipulation and a mix of several photos. I’ve already created several art projects and showed them in a few countries, including France, Belgium and the USA."



"Creation brings me enormous pleasure. I am stubborn, ambitious and optimistic by nature; I like being different — and my work, I hope, reflects these features of my character."





The Artists Page on DeviantArt
See Much More of His Fabulous Work On His Website