Bubblegum colors like baby pink and baby blue?
Check.

Images of torture, death, and sadism?
Check.

Leave it to Los Angeles artist Kill Pixie, or Mark Whalen (formerly of Sydney, Australia) to put hooded madmen in settings rife with geometric shapes and patterns. Pieces like Group Sessions (left) and Ill Do Anything (right) might seem nearly like vector art created for posters, but in actuality, are the result of a technique that blends acrylic, ink, and gouache on paper that’s then pasted onto wood panels and coated with resin. The resulting pieces seem to have a sense of smoothness and vividness that make them nearly print-like. His 2009 pieces are a step towards simplicity from his dizzying 2008 pieces, but they remain just as interesting.

www.killpixie.net

Elena Kalis takes photos that look like snapshots into one’s dreams. She has three separate portfolios on her site — a black and white Impressions Gallery, a sparsely colored African-Carribean Gallery, and a hyper-colored Underwater Gallery. All three contain series of perfectly-executed portraits that capture humanity at the height of its potential for whimsy. The attention to detail behind these works must be extraordinary, and her manipulation of the human body never becomes boring. Simply amazing.

www.elenakalisphoto.com

Now at Lo-Fi Gallery is the Artifakt Art Collective’s July photography show! Of particular interest are the lightwriting works of Inua Blevins and Avail. These long-exposure images are shot in cityscapes and crowded bars, giving a pretty distinct look to what is now a common effect.

Lwww.myspace.com/lofigallery
www.artifaktart.org
www.myspace.com/inua
www.myspace.com/resol

Projection on Buildings from NuFormer Digital Media on Vimeo.

Nuformer, a Dutch multimedia agency, has come out with an interesting video showcasing images projected onto building facades to create the illusion of random events happening, from buildings crumpling to bouncy balls falling from rooftops. An interesting watch, and although everything happening in this video is probably being achieved with special effects, it could be a marker of something exciting that’s to come. (That being said, don’t go to their website expecting other exciting things, because their website is pretty poor, and their other projects pretty boring.)

www.nufromer.nl/en/

The YYYs have put out a request for fans to design the t-shirts for their next tour! View the full details are at http://www.yeahyeahyeahs.com/tshirt/, but here’s what Miss Karen O has to say about it:

“Hey Folks, all us YYYs have been avid collectors of t-shirts over the years, what can we say, WE LIKEY A GOOD T-SHIRT. In our travels many of you have chucked a homemade YYY tee on the stage or what not and all the shirts have always been unique and poured over with loooooove. So it got us thinking: how about giving you the fans a crack at coming up with a fresh new blitzin’ YYY T-shirt design! It’s a natural fact that YYYs have amongst YOU a whole heap of ART STARS! So school’s out for the summer and we want you to spend a hot lazy afternoon throwing something together for us YYYs to REPRESENT! And I got a hunch you’re gonna bring it! And if you do we’ll bring back a little something in return…!! Luv, YYYs”

The winner will get a bunch o’ signed stuff from the band and will have their tshirt printed + sold on the upcoming YYYs tour and online.

Designs must be submitted by July 22nd, 2009.

http://www.yeahyeahyeahs.com/tshirt/

The 1300/Third Gallery in Cleveland will have a pretty cool illustration and photography show coming up, in conjunction with The Steve Brown Gallery. The show will feature resident artists Benjamin Haehn (with his colored pencil and oil piece, Shark Shark, pictured to the right) and Trelawney O’Brien, as well as illustrator Robb Hare.

The Steve Brown Gallery (TBSG) is a floating gallery that essentially showcases works in different parts of Cleveland, Ohio, and they’ve already attained three exciting spaces — one of which is the 1300/Third Gallery. Others include Brigade Clothing and Shoparooni, but all will be available on The Steve Brown Gallery’s website after the show’s openings. TBSG will offer awesome art, but counseling services and career advice for artists as well, on topics as diverse as finding a quality printer to attaining wholesale distribution. It will no doubt serve as an amazing resource for artists as well as art-lovers.

stevebrowngallery.blogspot.com
www.stevebrowngallery.com
www.benjaminhaehn.com
www.clothingbrigade.com
www.stevebrowngallery.com
www.flickr.com/photos/22518573@N04/

Tomorrow is the last day you’ll be able to check out the Halogen Gallery’s June Variety Show which features — you’ve guessed it — a variety of works by artists from Seattle and slightly beyond. Amongst the grouping include some real Redefine favorites. Here are some of the pieces you can check out, along with a cool mural by Max Kauffman which you can catch an ever-so-small glimpse of in the image above.

Max Kauffman seems to be the centerpiece of this particular Variety Show, what with his offering up a mural and more than a dozen of his pieces for sale. His signature style, full of bright watercolors and organic lines, really make their mark on a good portion of the wall here. It helps that I honestly can’t say I’ve seen many watercolor pieces glossed with resin, but the added touch, such as in Suck It Down (pictured left), gives the pieces a nice sheen.

Bryan Mandronico always manages to create sci-fi-themed images that are still cutesy and colorful enough to appeal to not only males and females, but nerds and non-nerds alike. And in a time where robots and octopi are strangely in vogue, the hybrid of them in Wendl Pup (pictured right) is perhaps even more appealing still.

Crystal Wall Lancaster’s recent paintings seem to pay homage to vintage fashion in an updated way. While pieces like Percy (shown left) depart a bit from her usual, darker style of female figure rendering, neon colors and crazy patterns are in, and these pieces seem to capture a portrait of what the current state of fashion might look like if blended with the old.

Kelly Patton exercises careful control over watercolor with three delicate pieces, including Spell: Violins (pictured right). Watercolored animals and insects pop out of gold leaf backgrounds, and the organic color palette lends itself well to the overall message behind the pieces.

www.halogengallery.com
www.kauffmanartistry.com
www.mandronico.com
www.crystalwalllancaster.com
home.comcast.net/~kellypatton/

Scion Installation Five: Self-Portrait Philadelphia Preview from Scion ART on Vimeo.

Whoever is Scion’s Art Director or Head of Marketing is a genius. They always manage to sponsor extremely innovative art events to appeal to an audience that, in my book, probably wouldn’t even be the ideal Scion-purchasing candidate, but what do I know? They’re obviously still alive and kicking. Showcasing artists like AJ Fosik, Patrick Martinez, and Christina M. Felice, their show, National Art Tour Installation 5: Self Portrait, will kick off in Philadelphia on Friday, July 3rd, from 7:00pm to 11:00pm at T&P Fine Art. This diverse mixed-media show will showcase self-portraits by artists from around the country, and will end at Scion’s 4,200 square foot Los Angeles installation space. Talk about epic. All of the artwork will be auctioned off there, with proceeds going to Creative Capital, an organization that helps artists thrive through grants, workshops, and more.

Watch the video above for a good sample, or hit up Scion’s website for more information.

www.myspace.com/aaaajaaaay
www.patrickmartinez.com
www.felicephotography.com
www.creative-capital.org
www.scion.com/installation