Nostalgia
Paradoxically, much surreal digital art uses a vintage, nostalgic, or classical art aesthetic.
I believe there could be several reasons for this:
- It roots the viewer/artist in something comfortable and known
- The greatest fear is of the unknown and unfamiliar
- Using new tools and creating something completely new and in new styles is uncomfortable, and likely the result will be failure and rejection
- Advertising and film tends to use more contemporary and realist aesthetics
- Vintage and classical aesthetics is a way of differentiating artwork from those attempting to hawk their wares on you
- Abstract painting has become the realm of corporate art
- Contemporary art is more influenced by Dada and Marcel Duchamp
- Pretty, unthinking landscapes is the realm of corporate art (and your aunt Mertle’s souvenirs from her vacations.)
- By being both faux vintage and futuristic it creates and interesting paradox that makes something larger than life
Or, maybe it just looks cool
Boris Indrikov
About Boris Indrikov
Boris Indrikov was born in Leningrad in 1967 and lives and works in Moscow. From 1991 to 1997 he was a book designer and worked as an illustrator for the popular science magazine “Chemistry and Life”. He has been a member of the Creative Union of Artists of Russia and The member of the International Federation of Artist ( IFA UNESCO) 1998.Has exhibited works at a number of shows in Russia and abroad (Art-Manezh 2002, 2003, 2012, ART-Salon 2007, Art Fair Tokyo 2013, Venezia 2014 and others). He currently works in painting, graphic design and small-form plastic. He works mainly in fantastic realism. His pictures are in the D`VASKO gallery (Russia), HORIZON gallery (Netherlands), and private collections in Russia, Sweden, Italy, Germany, France, Switzerland, Japan and the United States. Less
Education:
… Picture – is a door into a parallel world. That is a world where all things are different. There are other laws, other lines and shapes.
This is my world. Maybe I came from there and I will come back …
… You took brushes and paints, came up to a canvas – from the other side of the canvas somebody has already looked forward to your first stroke, this is like a snake biting its own tail. By creating a picture, you complete another CREATION cycle of this world.
… Artist – is a mysterious creature, “God’s pipe”, agent, He is vibrating because of stream of information which is flowing through him. “… And he was trembling like a needle in the compass…”. There is feeling of creative itch and impatience, unembodied pregnancy, pangs and doubts about things that you have done, and, at the same time, you are full of pleasure from the process in itself.
It’s kind of the artist’s living…
Events:
2012 ART INTERNATIONAL Zurich 14th International Contemporary Art Fair, Switzerland
2012 Affordable Art Fair Brussels
2013 Art Fair Tokyo 2013
2013 Stars with Stars. Gall’Art Roma artists at “Estate Romana” – Isola del Cinema
2013 International Contemporary Art Show “Kaleidos”. Sant’Oreste Roma Museum
2014 VENEZIA, Galleria di Palazzo Priuli Bon . (July)
2015 35×35 art project – Copelouzos Family Art Museum (Grèce)
https://www.saatchiart.com/borisindrikov
https://www.facebook.com/borisindrikov.gallery/
5 Amazing Surrealistic Things!!!
Here is a short list of five surrealist things I am thinking about this week.
1. Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Endless Poetry
Through renowned father of the midnight movies Alejandro Jodorowsky’s intensely personal lens, Endless Poetry tells the story of his years spent as an aspiring poet in Chile in the 1940’s.
Against the wishes of his authoritarian father, the 20 year old Jodorowsky leaves home to pursue his dream of becoming a poet, and is introduced into the bohemian and artistic inner circle of Santiago where he meets Enrique Lihn, Stella Diaz Varín, Nicanor Parra, all unknown at the time, but who would later become driving forces of twentieth-century Hispanic literature.
Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Endless Poetry
2. Deep in the Mexican Jungle, One Man Created a Surrealist Paradise
“An English dandy with an abundant inheritance from the railroad industry, Edward James voraciously collected surrealist art, rare orchids, and parrots. He took up mysticism, rubbed elbows with Salvador Dali and Aldous Huxley, and fancied wearing ponchos sans pants.
To those who knew him, James was “the last of the great eccentrics.”
James’s outlandish nature, however, was best captured in his magnum opus: Las Pozas, a fantastical sculpture garden nestled deep in the Mexican jungle. Forged over the last 22 years of his life, what he called his “Surrealist Xanadu” would become one of the globe’s greatest curiosities.”
– Via Artsy
3. Naoto Hattori
Part whimsical illustration, part surrealist creatures, part eye candy, but 100% awesome, we can’t take our eyes off of Hattori’s intricate artwork. We always come back to his strange unique creations.
4. ‘Torrey Pines’ tells autobiographical story through beautiful, surreal stop motion
“In “Torrey Pines,” the childhood of its director Clyde Petersen unfolds through beautiful, handmade stop motion animation. We see a pre-transition 12-year-old Petersen — a devoted Trekkie with an ever-present USS Enterprise T-shirt. He yearns to escape the humdrum life of his Southern California hometown, and he gets his wish when his schizophrenic mother takes him on a cross-country road trip. The film is an endearing blend of sweet anecdotes and surrealism, and the result is a story that feels warmly joyous.”
– Via DailyCal.org
5. FROM THE MOUTH OF SHADOWS: ON THE SURREALIST USE OF AUTOMATISM
by Kasper Opstrup
“From surrealism’s beginnings around a Parisian séance table, it oscillated between the occult and the political. One of its key methods, automatism, provided access to both the esoteric and the exoteric: it took form in the mid-19th century as a spiritualist technique for communicating with the other side while, simultaneously, this other side could address political issues as equal rights, de-colonisation and a utopian future with an authority coming from beyond the individual. By tracing the development of automatism, the article shows how automatism in surrealism became a call for both a re-orientation of life and an institutional re-organisation by becoming a divination tool for a future community looking back to hermeticism to find a way forward. The article argues that not only can surrealism fruitfully be understood in the light of an occult revival in reaction to crises but, additionally, that it marks the return of and a reaction to a kind of magical thinking in the modern – due to waning religious and socio-economic orthodoxies – that echoes eerily into our own big data contemporary of social medias where we tend to substitute equations with associations.”
http://ojs.statsbiblioteket.dk/index.php/nja/article/view/26405
Medusawolf
Medusawolf (A. E. Brown) Biography
I grew up near the woods & discovered the world was a weird mystery. I learned I loved to draw. Years later, I went to Delaware College of Art & Design where I learned I loved to paint. Today I draw & paint the weirdness the world makes me see inside. I live in Bear, Delaware with a very beautiful girl and two cats who hate each other.
Thom Easton Surreal Collage Art
Thom Easton creates art juxtaposing the everyday with epic sci-fi/space visuals. His imagery has a retro feel. He seems to source his images from 1970’s magazines that add a certain nostalgia to the work.