Surrealism Today

Contemporary surreal, visionary and pop surreal art

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Contemporary Surrealistic Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (support base). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and airbrushes, can be used. Painting is a mode of creative expression, and the forms are numerous.

-via Wikipedia

Painting is one of the most versatile mediums in visual art. It is also a highly personal medium. Painting styles are as varied and idiosyncratic as the artists themselves.

And so it is with surrealistic painting.

Contemporary surrealistic painting ranges from the nearly photographic dreamscapes of Jacek Yerka and Mark Ryden, to the abstract surrealism of Mohammad Zaza, from scribbles on linen to highly detailed horror artists like HR Giger and Zdzisław Beksiński, to visionary artists like Alex Grey and Rudolf Hausner attempting to visualize the spiritual world or religious experience.

Cheryl Frey Richards

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Statement

Recently, I have been exploring life’s destinations and how they are recorded. I am fascinated with how people have documented their memories; presently and in the past with social and pictorial fervor. My images deal with the contradiction of letting go but at the same time wanting to forever hold on. Filtered photos and high definition videos help create an over the top and almost “too sharp” memory. Continuous snapping and recording of day to day life blur important aspects while things that should be forgotten are in full color. What then does a goodbye truly mean?

Biography

Cheryl Frey Richards is a painter, illustrator, designer and art instructor living and working in Patchogue, New York. Cheryl’s artwork has been exhibited in several galleries throughout the Midwest and Northeastern United States. Her work is also a part of several national and international private collections. It is all about control. My work deals with controlling emotions: forcing a smile, face surface vs. dark underbellies, and controlling one’s situation at all costs. Each piece I create shoves the landscape into individual and discernible shapes and forces colors to commit to their given placement on the canvas. The paintings appear whimsical and bright with tension to them. I am a bit of a control freak and struggle with trying to simplify while maintaining control. My older work had a tighter grip on shapes and colors, but as my work has progressed, the colors and lines have loosened as I have learned to let go little by little.

Cheryl Frey Richards Elsewhere

Portfolio: freyrichards.com
Instagram: instagram.com/freyrichardsart
Online Shops:
etsy.com/shop/FreyRichardsArt
saatchiart.com/account/artworks/798001

Arabella Proffer

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Series: Acids and Sugars

This series brings together my interests in botany, microbiology, space, disease, and the evolution of cells. I subconsciously explore the relationships between anatomy, biology, nature, and emerging sciences while creating from my own imagination. These paintings sometimes mirror personal metaphysical occurrences, and, at times, contain a slight nod to art history, such as hints of a baroque landscape or decadent still lives through distorted lenses. They are more virtual reality than actuality.

I delve into the practice and alchemy of oil paint dictating the direction, shaping aesthetic outcomes, and transforming emotional impressions as I go. Insects, flowers, human organs all come from the same process at the core, but within these works I am visualizing their fictional evolution at any given stage comes from instinct. I create my own fragile beings and nature within these little worlds; alien forms mesh with what might be seen under a microscope, or through a telescope. They are an artificial nature or a nature that is simply unknown to us, scientized and made more delectable. This is my biomorphic garden party.

Shop Arabella Proffer on Surrealism Today

Manor House – by Arabella Proffer

Size: 10×10

$40.00
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Discover more works by Mrs. Proffer below.

ArabellaProffer.com
Arbella Proffer Shop
instagram.com/arabellaproffer
twitter.com/vendettabella
saatchiart.com/Arabella-Proffer
society6.com/arabella/

Slobodan Lončarević

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Biography

Slobodan Lončarević was born in Podgorica, Montenegro, during the Yugoslavia union, in 1960. He lives and works in Podgorica. He is a self-taught painter, who used literature from the Belgrade Academy of Fine Arts and the exercises of Albert Durer for his art education. He studied art during a long period of early youth and was assisted by several renowned Montenegrin artists. He continues to study art, focusing on surrealistic art. He graduated with a degree in Economics from the University of Montenegro in Podgorica.

Statement

I approach painting through fantastic forms in an attempt to draw out the human essence to the canvas. In the space between myself and the painting, I experience myself as a crucified man; neither on heaven nor on earth. For me, surrealism is a gentle fluid that breathes life into the limitless playground of reality.

Art Prints

Society6
SaatchiArt
Fine Art America

Jem Ham

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Jem Ham is an Australian, self-taught artist who started painting on brick walls with water at the age of four. Fascinated by the way the watermarked the brick and the ability to bring to life something from within, his love for art was born. Since then, it has been a journey of self-discovery through art, fuelled by a passionate need to create.

His work aims to visually represent the nature and psychology of the inner sphere of the artist. It is an attempt to understand the day to day psyche through self-expression and the creation of an original visual aesthetic. The process aims to tap into the subconscious world of imagination to reveal something from within which is often vague in the mind but comes to life through the process of drawing. As the whimsical creations are evolved manifestations of the artist’s inner sphere, the freedom in which each element can be interpreted allows the viewer to also connect to a naive imagination.

The evolution of each artwork is triggered by the recognition of the whirling maelstrom of seemingly random elements within. From this heightened state of being, the pencil hits the paper, channeling this creative energy into physical form.

Drawing influences from a range of artistic styles, his art comes with a large dose of heart, a touch of the surreal and psychedelic, a hint of realism, and a dash of whimsy. In essence, his works are a soapbox for the subconscious mind, giving voice to the imaginative world within.

Visit Jem’s Portfolio at jemham.com or purchase prints at Jem Ham’s Etsy. You can also follow him on Instagram or on Facebook.

Valeriu Buev

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The paintings of Moldovan artist Valeriu Buev explore the strange and poetic tragedy of the human condition. Although Buev uses the language of surrealism and dream, his stunning images remain fully rooted both psychically and technically in material reality. Through the processes of distortion and imagination, Buev confronts the stark costs of humanity’s darker tendencies, such as war and corruption.

And yet, Buev’s work doesn’t rely upon simplistic platitudes and does not fall back on propagandistic tropes. Instead, each gorgeously painted image is wildly open to interpretation through visual metaphor and rich layers of ambiguity.

Each surrealistic image is embedded firmly in the near past or possible symbolic present.

Buev doesn’t indulge in idealism or painting surrealist images disassociated from present reality. Instead, he unflinchingly confronts the stark realities of our world and transforms each transgression into something oddly beautiful, poetic, and archetypal.

Others of Buev’s images remain just beautiful and opaque. The artist’s symbolism suggests something meaningful. Like a Rorschach test, each skillfully crafted image queues the viewer to delve into his own subconscious. Our reading may tell us more about our own current emotional landscapes than we first assume.

Follow Valeriu Buev on Facebook

Prints can be obtained from Saatchi Art and on Fine Art America:

Valeriu Buev on Fine Art America

Valeriu Buev on Saatchi Art