In Alexis Trice’s dreamy worlds, ethereal looking fish, hounds, shells, and clouds mingle and sparkle like jewels in a crepuscular haze. It’s in a hypnogogic state (where dreams and reality interweave) that they really spring to life: swimming, prancing, basking, and even weeping. Like sand passed through our fingers, though, their seemingly solid forms vanish […]
The post Alexis Trice Paints a…
Ryan Heshka has a longtime love of science fiction, four-color printed comics from the 1950s and ‘60s and mid-twentieth-century mutant movie characters. In his comic Frog Wife, he taps into these influences while adding in a dose of contemporary themes, drawing upon not just the “anxiety of nuclear annihilation” that inspired so much twentieth-century pop […]
The post The Radioactive Surrealism…
Calligraphy is an ancient art with roots across the globe, dating back to early Chinese dynasties and Greek civilization, all through the Italian Renaissance. But one glance at a work by San Francisco-based artist Hunter Saxony III, and your understanding of calligraphy will be turned on its head. In an approach that is varied, yet […]
The post Hunter Saxony III Is Pushing the Boundaries of…
In the popular imagination, artists are often thought to create for the sake of creating, unfettered by the demands of the market-driven world outside their studios. Though many well-known artists have muddled the boundaries between art and commerce (Jeff Koons comes to mind), the two realms have a contentious relationship. Business savvy artists are often […]
The post Changing the Subject: The…
All images courtesy of the artist and GNYP gallery In Aistė Stancikaitė’s painting “Some Time We Walk Together,” two gloved hands are joined by a set of finger cuffs. The connected, silver rings resemble wedding bands. As for the hands, whether they belong to one or two people is up to the viewer to decide. […]
The post AISTĖ STANCIKAITĖ Uses Painting to Create HUMAN STORIES first appeared on…
Interior Gallery Photos by and ©Tim Hursley, courtesy of Crystal Bridges Museum As a world-class institution showcasing one of the most impressive collections of American art spanning five centuries, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art has firmly placed Bentonville, Arkansas on the global cultural map. And, except for a few major holidays, the museum […]
The post Crystal Bridges Opens…
In Perfectly Normal—the exhibition from Dustin Myers that ran at Los Angeles gallery Thinkspace Projects in November 2023—the Southern California artist presented a collection of young characters painted in oils. Posed in the awkward-yet-endearing postures associated with school photographs, the characters’ exaggerated facial features reveal a bevy of emotions. Some are ready for their close-up.…
“I have a passion for product design; most of the motifs I draw are related to consumer products,” says Shohei Ochiai. The Tokyo-based artist studied at Tama Art University, where he graduated about a decade ago, and is an admirer of the designs of consumer product company Braun, Memphis Group founder Ettore Sottsass, and famed […]
The post SHOHEI Ochiai Flattens consumer products into…
ABOVE: Photo of Martha Rich by Andrea Cipriani Mecchi Any artist will tell you one of the greatest gifts they ever earned was the moment they found their style—their singular take on subject, creation, and process. But much harder earned is the gift of confidence, that ability to continue in one’s style, despite all the […]
The post Martha Rich Holds It Together With Nuts & Screws first appeared…
Chet Zar is best known for painting monsters, but over the past few years, flowers have been creeping to the center of his canvases. Zar’s blooms—hibiscus, stargazers, and sunflowers amongst them—are so vibrant that you can instantly imagine their fragrance. Their vivid colors and pert petals might stand in contrast to the unsettling, sometimes terrifying, […]
The post Life & Death: The Skull…
W hen we connect over Zoom, Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir, aka Shoplifter, is in Bentonville, Arkansas preparing to unveil Xanadu, a large-scale, outdoor installation at Format Festival. “It’s going to be like an alien forest that people at the festival roam around in and space out,” says Arnardóttir of the installation, consisting of ten poles ranging in […]
The post The Immersive Hairy Worlds of…
What do you get when you combine an obsessive urge to create, sleep deprivation, climate change anxiety, and penchant for enchanted nature realms? Amy Casey shows us firsthand, through her infinitely detailed paintings of manmade structures, either clashing or peacefully coexisting with natural environments. In these pieces we might find repetitions of fungi, leaves, and […]
The post Amy Casey:…
ABOVE: Installation view, Jeffrey Gibson, boshullichi / inlvchi – we will continue to change, Kunsthaus Zürich, 2025, photo by Franca Candrian, Kunsthaus Zürich Jeffrey Gibson was far more open about the act of dreaming and the beliefs that make-up spirituality than I expected. I started our conversation saying that I like to keep things loose, […]
The post Jeffrey Gibson: More Colors than The…
At some point, I realized I didn’t want to choose between the past and the present. I was interested in allowing them to coexist,” says baroque-style painter Nieves González, who distorts trappings of traditional portraiture to exalt modern day women. Her recent portrait of British pop star Lily Allen, for example, places contemporary attitude—and fashion—within […]
The post Baroque-style…
“What I am advocating for is a type of grace,” says Matthew Hansel. “Both in the way we see ourselves and in the way we see others. I am celebrating the impossible mix of contradictory things that make us human, including the parts of ourselves we hide from the world.” Hansel’s tour of our hidden […]
The post Matthew Hansel’s Hidden Demons first appeared on Hi-Fructose Magazine.
To celebrate the cult movie director’s 80th birthday, we bring you our interview with John Waters from Hi-Fructose Isssue 69. You can still get a copy in print of this issue here. Happy Birthday to The King of Puke! ABOVE: Portrait of John Waters, photo by Greg Gorman, © Academy Museum Foundation Early on in the […]
The post Happy 80th Birthday to The Pope of Trash: An Interview With John Waters…
In a world not so unlike our own, during a time not that long ago, a mother wolf sits comfortably upon an abandoned tree stump in a clearing in the woods. Surrounded by carefully rendered flora and fauna, the creature is positioned upright with impeccable posture and human-like mannerisms. Her hind legs are crossed at […]
The post The Drawings of Femke Hiemestra Depict Fairy Tales with Looming…
ABOVE: “Spatial Awareness”, 54″ x 250″, hand-knit with wool, 2025, photo by Chris Rettman From her dining room table in Oklahoma City, Kendall Ross knits brightly colored, intricately patterned sweaters and vests—some so large that referring to them as wearables is a bit misleading. Her textile pieces are often emblazoned with diary-like messages that speak […]
The post Kendall Ross Comments…
In 2019, Kayla Mahaffey reached a turning point with her art. The Chicago-based artist had a solo show at Line Dot Editions in April of that year. Titled Off to the Races, the series of paintings centered around children ready to hit the road. Some sat with their growing legs crouched in tiny cars or […]
The post Child’s Play: The Paintings of Kayla Mahaffey first appeared on Hi-Fructose…
When Frode Bolhuis got his start as a sculptor, he worked classically, with monumental figures made of bronze and metal—the kind of thing you see in a public square or park. But then the Dutch sculptor discovered the simplest of mediums, polymer clay, and his art practice exploded into a technicolor world of hue and […]
The post For Frode Bolhuis, The Figure Contains Life’s Mysteries and Its…
When the Bulls Fest—a raging celebration of the iconic and famed NBA team—first happened at Chicago’s United Center in 2022, Kyle Cobban was one of the contributing artists to The Art of the Game exhibition. It’s a piece that encapsulates Cobban’s aesthetic vision. Working with graphite and paper, the Chicago-based artist makes small, detailed drawings […]
The post Kyle Cobban Draws From The…
In the process of painting someone, artist Jenny Morgan reveals not only what shows, but what doesn’t show. Her vibrant and emotional oil paintings of figures hover in a place that is between realism and abstraction, where many of her subjects confront their viewer with an electric stare that braves against the vulnerable moment in […]
The post Very Strange Days: The Paintings of Jenny Morgan…
Growing up as a queer kid in the ‘80s, I was well aware from an early age that I was different, and that different was not okay, especially living in Missouri,” says New Mexico artist Anthony Hurd, who recently shifted away from abstracts, to delve into what may be deemed “controversial” figurative work. Not only […]
The post Boy Howdy! Anthony Hurd Embraces the Personal first appeared on…
The 78th Issue of Hi-Fructose includes a cover a feature on Nieves Gonzalez, the art of Grip Face, The landscapes of Jennifer Nehrbass, the soft sculptures of Ela Fidalgo, the stitched urban landscapes of Laura Ortiz Vega, the art Jeffrey Gibson, Yu Jin Young’s once transparent figures, and the paintings of Fatima De Juan. Plus […]
The post Hi-Fructose issue 78 is Coming! first appeared on…
Henrik Aarrestad Uldalen captures people in oils with all the precision and clarity of a camera. He then places these incredibly lifelike images in impossible scenes. Uldalen’s models float in blank spaces. They precariously climb staircases that spiral upside down. They fall from buildings that tilt at odd angles. The Oslo-based artist’s work isn’t so […]
The post Weightless: The Paintings of…
Mary Iverson paints bucolic, sweeping landscapes reminiscent of the late nine-teenth century that look as if were discovered in the dusty corners of an underrated thrift store. At first look, I assume the canvases are found objects, painted over and re-imagined as something quite different than the original painter intended. This is only partially true. […]
The post Worlds Collide: The Art of…
ABOVE: Gaza Cinderella, Northern Gaza Strip, 2012 “Although her drawing is filled with soldiers, helicopters, and tanks, “Amara” only spoke about her intense fear of missile strikes. When a building or other structure is targeted in Gaza, it is often hit with a barrage of several missiles to ensure its complete destruction. The sound of […]
The post WAR TOYS: Photographer Brian McCarty Travels…
Embroidery as an art form is often overlooked as a craft, but that is part of its appeal to Burbank, California-based artist Michelle Kingdom, who uses embroidery to express her innermost thoughts and escape to her imaginary world. Michelle Kingdom’s unexpected approach to embroidery is like a painter’s, and some have dubbed her work as […]
The post The Embodieries of Michelle Kingdom Capture…
KRK Ryden's latest solo show "Wet Bread" is now on view at Brassworks Gallery in Portland. Read an interview on the pop surrealist from our archives by clicking above!
The post In Blob We Trust: The Art of KRK Ryden first appeared on Hi-Fructose Magazine.
There are many occasions when language fails me, when a poet’s hand seems what is needed to get to the truth of a thing—a man’s life, a work of art, a life of art. This is such a moment. To call the oil paintings of Eyvind Earle “landscapes” is accurate but very sorely wanting. For […]
The post Uncanny Valley: The Oil Paintings of the Late Eyvind Earle Still Have A Resounding Influence on…