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RAY ORANGES, Italy

There is something special about Ray’s artwork: he has the ability tell a whole story with just a few well chosen details. The absence of cluttering matter, enhanced by the mastery use of long shadows and bursts of light creates an emotional response in the viewer.

Ray’s message is always strong and to the point, although never aggressive. Ray’s artwork doesn’t aim at shouting louder than its surroundings – it doesn’t have to. The skilful use of full and empty spaces within the composition, with a predominance of the latter, is open territory for the viewer to fill the space with feelings and experiences; Ray aims at creating a meaningful dialogue with the viewer rather than establishing a relationship of command.

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PABLO LOBATO, Argentina

Soon after finishing his studies, Pablo started working as a graphic designer for different magazines. This, however, only lasted five years, since total boredom drove him back to his first passion – illustrations. Today, Pablo has made quite a name for him self in Argentina where he lives and works.

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Borja Bonaque ( Valencia, 1985 ) Designer and illustrator. Graduated from the Polytechnic University of Valencia with a degree in Fine Arts. While studying, he started working as a freelancer for advertising agencies in Spain and abroad. Was named ‘Graduate of the Year’ by Wallpaper magazine in 2009, along with other young artists from different disciplines. His work encompasses both graphic design and advertising and editorial illustration which he develops in his own studio.

He has produced artwork for companies and editorials such us, Lufthansa, Financial Times, Wallpaper, Zoo York, New Scientist, Rioja Wines, McDonalds, House & Garden, Wired Magazine, Plátano de Canarias, Washington Post, Shop Magazine, Starbucks, Vipinvest, Make architects, Nobel Spain, Quann or Converse.

And agencies such us Pentagram, Cossette, Heavenly, Btob, YCN, Dutch Uncle, Anomaly, Mediadam, Touch, La Despensa, or Someone,

His work has been published in Spain, Italy, Germany, United States, England, Mexico, Switzerland, Japan, Singapore and Australia.

https://www.borjabonaque.com

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PAWEL NOLBERT, USA

Pawel is an independent artist, illustrator & designer.

He envisions, develops and executes ideas for various clients around the globe.

During the past decade he gained experience creating visual work, design and art for brands like Google, Apple, Nike, Sony, Polaroid, Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft, Johnnie Walker, Squarespace, Disney and many more companies, agencies or studios. He does projects ranging from key art for brands, through interactive, advertising, animation or branding materials, and other things visual.

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Paper artist Matthew Shlian (previously here and here) combines his talent for sculpture with a knack for engineering, producing geometric works that are composed of tight-knit tessellations. Shlian’s receptively folded works have lead to collaborations with scientists at the University of Michigan, together working to visualize research by translating paper structures to micro folds.

“Researchers see paper engineering as a metaphor for scientific principals; I see their inquiry as a basis for artistic inspiration,” said Shlian in an artist statement on his website. “In my studio I am a collaborator, explorer and inventor. I begin with a system of folding and at a particular moment the material takes over.”

Shlian’s solo exhibition TELEMETRY, which explores the intersection between science and art, opens this Thursday at Florida Gulf Coast University and runs through March 2, 2017. You can see more of his intricately folded work on his Instagram and Facebook.

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Diana Beltran Herrera (b. 1987, Colombia) is a designer and artist that has been working over the past years with ordinary materials as wire, cardboard, plastic, and paper, the primary medium in the production of her work. After graduating from her BA degree in industrial Design at the Jorge Tadeo Lozano University (Bogota, Colombia) in 2010, Herrera decided to pursue design as an experimental practice, researching daily about different materials that exist around us and are present in our everyday lives. For Herrera, there is a considerable distance in the relationship between human and nature, and throughout her work, she aims to repair this relation by producing elements that are constantly removed, altered and forgotten. Her work is presented as a resistance of time. Her sculptures portray the ideal state of a thing and also act like a model of representation of a reality that doesnt suffer any change.

Trough her practice in sculpture Herrera has been representing different subjects. One of her most extensive series is her work with birds, insects, fish and plants. These works have been exhibited in her country as well as participating in solo and group shows in Europe, Asia and USA. She has been cooperating with artists as well as organizations and private clients as 215mmcann, Olivari Olive Oil, Volevatch, Longwood gardens US, ENI, Marina Rinaldi, Lebeau- Courally, James Cropper UK, Hodder and Stoughton UK, Horse Mag and many others.

The interest that Herrera has in economic materials in general, is the potential of transformation that may occur with just the implementation of simple techniques and processes based on repetition. Just as the patterns found in nature, her sculptures comprehend massive groups of elements that together compose a major complex system. She is currently living in Bristol, where she recently graduated with distinction from a MA in Fine Arts at the UWE. (university of the west of England). Recent commissions includes a piece for the Festival of ideas (program developed by Bristol City Council), and her first solo show in Asia (Jakarta, Indonesia) supported by the Embassy of Colombia in Indonesia and Cancilleria de Colombia en el Exterior

http://www.dianabeltranherrera.com

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Tiffany Bozic has spent the majority of her life living with and observing the intricacies of nature. Her work has the traditional air of tightly rendered nature illustrations but with a highly emotional range of surreal metaphorical themes. In her paintings and sketches she presents her vision of life’s struggles and triumphs that are largely autobiographical.  Her wide array of subjects are inspired both from her extensive travels to wild places, and the research specimens at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, CA. Over the years, Bozic has developed a complex process of masking and staining so the natural grain can collaborate with each composition using multiple layers of watered down acrylic paint on maple panels of wood.  She has had several solo exhibitions featuring her large-scale paintings and installations. Her work has also been included in numerous group shows across the country, and spoken at international events. She was also the first ‘Artist in Residency’ whereby she collaborated with the California Academy of Sciences, to create the “From the Depths” exhibit on the public floor of the museum, November 2007. Bozic is a self-taught artist currently living and working in her cottage under the redwood trees in Marin, CA.

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Natasha Bowdoin’s; Houston, USA

Life by 1,000 cuts: Natasha Bowdoin's work on view at the SCAD Museum of Art, Georgia (2015)

Now, her singular work – melding found text, drawings, paintings, paper cuttings, collage and wall installation – is set to go on show at the SCAD Museum of Art in Savannah, Georgia as a solo exhibition, 'Bloom'.

'I’ve long wanted to explore the actual experience of reading while always referencing nature,' says Bowdoin, who trained at the Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia and the Slade School of Fine Art, London, and is represented by the Lower East Side Monya Rowe Gallery, the Dallas Talley Dunn Gallery and Extraspazio in Rome.

In the case of 'Garden Plot' – an elaborate wall installation of quite striking visual complexity that Bowdoin has been working on for the past two years – she has chosen to draw particularly on the bucolic details of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s seminal 1836 essay 'Nature' and Henry David Thoreau's transcendental 1854 novel 'Walden', as well as Ernst Haeckel's printed illustrations of sea creatures and lunar maps.

Bowdoin then elaborates on patterns conceptually derived from the text, drawing a series of abstract forms that reference petals and ivy tendrils, slender branches and marine life. Constructed of multiple layers of paper, some of her creations are then filled in with gouache and acrylic in a palette of moss green, azure blue, even vibrant orange. Other drawings are first inscribed with portions of the selected texts and then painted. Finally, works on paper are cut by hand.

Assembling 'Garden Plot' for exhibition is an exceedingly laborious task, Bowdoin first preparing an on-site wall painting, before hanging the cut paper pieces on dowels directly on top of it. And the dimensions are, well... garden sized. The version of the work shown at the Roswell Museum and Art Centre in 2013 was 28 feet across; this particular iteration will extend more than 40 feet across and take an exhausting 11 days to install.

'It's an invitation,' Bowdoin says, 'for the viewer to enter and contemplate the realm of nature.'

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Ugo Gattoni is a Parisian born and bred artist and art director, whose surreal and exquisitely detailed portraits, depictions of cityscapes, and strange, otherworldly objects and artefacts are renowned worldwide for their unparalleled level of skill. Working predominantly with graphite or ink, Ugo’s work is a whirlwind of minute details, dreamlike characters and typography. He first came to fame in 2011 when he created a 33 ft mural in Paris, and later his book for NoBrow titled Bicycle attracted him the attention of Hermès who he has been working with since.

http://www.ugogattoni.fr

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Ugo Gattoni is a Parisian born and bred artist and art director, whose surreal and exquisitely detailed portraits, depictions of cityscapes, and strange, otherworldly objects and artefacts are renowned worldwide for their unparalleled level of skill.

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Kama Takuma, Japan

Japanese artist Takumi Kama apparently identifies with a lot of animals, something he mention it in his bio and strongly depicts in his paintings. Kama creates inspiring little scenarios where various animals exists in unnatural, strange environments that either satirize or comment on the lifestyle of animals and they way they have been mistreated by humans.

Focusing on the humorous aspect of his work, Kama explains in his statement that his purpose is to make people enjoy the work, and maybe laugh a little. “For me what is simple, clear and the most important is how my work can stop someone in their steps, draw them into an unexpected world and even freeze time. Laugh and maybe find yourself a little bit frightened. Humor everyone can enjoy is very important in life. It needs neither reason nor explanation, otherwise it ceases to be funny. Look at the painting, check out the title, those who “get it”, will. I just want you to be free to laugh and enjoy it. “

Artist Takumi Kama is trying to confront and conquer his fears of high school girls by turning them into strange reptiles and animals. By anthropomorphizing teenage girls, he makes them less threatening and harmful. The Japanese drawer has imagined one girl as a snobby, gangly giraffe, holding it’s head up high and standing displeased with everything around it. He has drawn another one as a frightened armadillo huddled in the fetal position, looking terrified and uncomfortable. He has sketched the girls he would see on the train as a group of primates, absorbed in their cellphones; the book nerd in the school corridor is now an awkward frog beast holding her book in her weird hands, furry tail wrapped around a bottle of soda pop. Kama has studied both the poses and mannerisms of the girls and also the beasts he has turned them into – combining them into one and the same. His immaculate pencil renderings create a convincing impression of these strange creatures, and it is easy to see them the way he does every time he encounters the demographic. Kama admits: I am terrified of high school girls. If I encounter a group of them on a train there is a high possibility I will escape to another car. (Source) This certain sub culture is often dissected, or referred to in popular Japanese culture. Called Joshi kōsei (女子高生) they feature in manga comics and videos as well as being fetishized in pornographic videos. Kama is also obsessed with the idea of this social group, but in his series Schoolgirl Animals, they are seen as something a bit more imaginative and humorous than the usual schoolgirl fantasy.

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NOMA BAR, is an Israel-born graphic designer, illustrator and artist. His work has appeared in many media publications. Bar has illustrated over sixty magazine covers, published over 550 illustrations and released two books of his work through Mark Batty Publisher.

Bar's work has become well known throughout the world, winning various industry awards; more recently the prestigious Yellow Pencil award at the D&AD Professional Awards 2012 for his series of Don DeLilo covers, created with London design studio It's Nice That. His London Design Festival exhibition 'Cut It Out', was selected as one of the highlights of the festival. The project was nominated in the graphics category for the Design Museum, Designs Of the Year 2012. In 2014, he illustrated Chineasy: The New Way to Read Chinese by Shaolan Hsueh, a book about Hsueh's visual-based method of learning Chinese.

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Kumi Yamashita Born in Japan, Lives and works in New York City.

Born in Japan but now living and working in New York City, artist Kumi Yamashita does incredible things with light and shadows. Kumi has an impressive list of solo and group shows sine the late 90s along with a host of permanent collections around the world. Kumi received her bachelor in fine arts at the Cornish College of the Arts in Washington and obtained her masters in fine art from the Glasgow School of Art in the UK. In her series entitled Light & Shadow, Kumi uses a single light source along with an assortment of perfectly placed objects to create incredible shadow silhouettes and artwork on walls. Please enjoy this small sample below, and be sure to visit Kumi’s official site for even more amazing artwork.

http://www.kumiyamashita.com

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ALESSANDRA MARIA, NEW YORK

“Though she graduated from Pratt Institute only in 2012, rising artist Alessandra Maria is already making waves with her delicate, mixed-media artworks.” - Hi Fructose Magazine

“Alessandra's beautifully eerie illustrations appear to be illuminated by the night sky. Her subject's glowing eyes make us wonder who exactly they are.” -Juxtapoz Magazine

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HONG CHUN ZHANG, China

Chinese artist Hong Chun Zhang’s graphite hair drawings and oil paintings are all about humor, beauty and repulsion.Though long hair is most commonly associated with beauty it can sometimes be very unattractive in particular settings. How about finding hair in your hamburger, egg, wine glass, cigarette, toothpaste and sink? Zhang takes a surrealist approach in juxtaposing hair with daily rituals and objects to evoke different feelings and emotions.

For 10 years, Hong has studied under both Chinese and American fine arts educational systems, and she has discovered a balance between the two cultures and artistic styles. In China, she developed a solid foundation in painting, but the content was restricted.  In 1996, Hong came to America to expand her education in fine arts. The graduate school in the US has provided Hong with the freedom to develop new concepts for her work.  This unique experience has been recognized with a Skowhegan Artist Residency Full Scholarship ( New York 2003 ) a Dedalus Foundation MFA Fellowship ( New York 2004 ) Pollock Krasner Foundation grant (New York 2006 )  and Scuola Internazionale di Grafica artist residency in Venice, Italy funded by APT ( Artist Pension Trust  2015) Hong has exhibited her work nationally and internationally at venues  including the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery ( Washington DC ) Asia Society Texas Center ( Houston, TX ) Japanese American National Museum ( Los Angeles, CA ) The White Rabbit Gallery ( Sydney, Australia ) The Museum of Contemporary Art Norway ( Oslo, Norway ) Centraal Museum ( Utrecht, Holland ) The 3rd Chengdu Biennale and The 9th Shanghai Biennale ( China ) Ink Studio ( Beijing ) Galerie Steph ( Singapore ) The Portland Museum of Art ( ME )The Center for Contemporary Art Sacramento, San Francisco Chinese Culture Center, Lawrence Arts Center, Whitespace  (Atlanta ) BRIC Rotunda Gallery ( Brooklyn ) The Chinese Porcelain Company ( NYC ) Her work can be found in many public and private collections such as Sylvain Levy/ DSL Collection ( Paris ) The White Rabbit Collection of Contemporary Chinese Art ( Sydney ) The Ministry of Culture of China ( Beijing ) The Origo Family Collection of Chinese Ink Paintings ( Zurich ) Spencer Museum of Art  ( Lawrence, KS ) and Ulrich Art Museum ( Wichita, KS

http://www.hongchunzhang.com

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Andreas Lie, a visual artist based in Bergen Norway, has found a beautiful way to blur the boundary between the beautiful Norwegian wilderness surrounding him and the wild animals that call it home. His photos, done in his signature double-exposure style, create a subtle gradient that turns these wild beasts’ feathers and fur into images of their habitats. It’s easy to imagine that the city of Bergen, where he lives, has had an influence on his art – this coastal Norwegian city, nestled among the fjords of the Hordaland district, is surrounded by 7 forested mountains that both locals and visitors love to hike.

http://society6.com/andreaslie