There’s a lot of crap on Tumblr. Here’s our weekly update that sorts through the crap to bring you the best of the week. (Click here to add us on Tumblr.) This is a big week for photography, so hopefully you like that!

There was a time when 3-dimensional-crafted shapes were all the rage on the internet and gracing the covers of electronic albums everywhere. For large part, that trend died down due to the fact that the shapes started looking much too artificial; they were unsophisticated polygons with no real textures or moods other than “metallic” or “clean.” Paul Lee has managed to take these polygons, manipulating them in a way that keeps them current.

Photography by Swedish multi-disciplinary artist John Falk Rodén, who runs his own creative company with his partner, Andreas Lewandowski, called Ajja.

Minimalistic photography that will take your breath away, by Thorsten Konrad. Oceans are frequently calming, but this takes that almost to another level.

Buttonmooon weeds through vintage cameras and film to create images like this that are basked in saturated colors. This could quite possibly be the album cover for the latest indie singer-songwriter.

Al Magnus combines photography with manipulation to create that walk the line between fantasy and reality. (And maybe gives a heads up to Wizard Of Oz?)

Gunta Stölzl, German artist. This is a wall hanging from 1931; she was ages ahead of the current hipster trends in textile art and patterning. Ages!

This is an old piece by Pietari Posti, but I just wanted to share it. In January of 1927, the beautiful silent sci-fi film Metropolis was born. In collaboration with underware.nl artists created modern remakes of their takes on famous movie posters. Here’s Posti’s rendition for Metropolis.

The 6-layered silkscreen print even glows in the dark, and it almost looks like a three-dimensional object! An oldie, but goodie.

What happens when New Age themes mix with surrealism and whimsy? Inka Essenhigh’s work! This New York artist has exhibited her oil paintings throughout the United States and Europe, and she now has an exhibit on display at 303 Gallery in New York City through February 20th. Here’s just an itty-bitty taste of what’s on display there.

Snowflake (Pink), oil on canvas, 64 x 72 inches

Green Goddess II, oil on canvas, 72 x 60 inches

Fog, Moss, Lichen, oil on canvas, 64 x 72 inches

There’s a lot of crap on Tumblr. Here’s our weekly update that sorts through the crap to bring you the best of the week. (Click here to add us on Tumblr.)

Rodney Smith’s elegant vintage photographs. He also has 3,000 pieces of stock photography, browsable by keyword! Amazing!

Mario Wagner fuses grungy textures with collage. This piece is Control the World for Sony Playstation / Vice Magazine.

Polish painter Jacek Yerka’s fantasy worlds are hazardly beautiful.

Jonathan Calugi’s style seems to give illustrations typographic treatment.

David O’Brien’s geometric explosions. What’s even better: the explosion is not just mere geometric shapes; it’s fucking little people! Actually, they’re called memes, and they represent singular ideas, symbols, or practices. You can read more about them on O’Brien’s website here. But see below for details:

Mutant Hands‘ Pea Stag. Sure, animals are played out, but at least this is a little different from your typical animal drawing.

Naoko Ito’s Ubiquitous takes the oft-used theme of urban nature and explores it in a new, spatially-challenging way.

Kathy Liao’s Making Face - Juicy Goodbye (with love) is a huge mixed media on canvas piece, at 70″ x 60″! Holy!

Andre Meca’s Explosions Of Colors And Shapes is pretty much exactly that.

I’m tired of boutique card decks that are too lazy to make custom cards for every card and instead only give a little bit of love to face cards. The Black Rock Collective’s new card deck gives artsy fartsy equal-opportunity treatment, creating super slick cards that would seem right at home at urban boutiques everywhere.

You’ve probably drawn on styrofoam containers before, or written your name on styrofoam cups a million times, but you’ve probably never done anything like Boey has. What’s more: he creates his cups in a wide array of styles; you would swear that a different individual made all of them, but you’d be wrong.

Tattoo-inspired khünbish.

Jury Duty. According to Boey’s quote on Flickr:

“foam cups shrink under pressure, and they become hard like plastic. thanks to Dave S., an oceanographer
from canada, these cups are able to travel deep down into the artic ocean to become 1/2 the cup they used to be.”

And lastly, check out the stippling on this:

fedor emelianenko, a mixed martial arts fighter.

I should make a mention that his journal is also extremely awesome. You can see it here.

For the year 2009, Christopher Davison made some really intense pieces. Let me start by saying that in Davison’s world, “small pieces” can be as large as 15″ x 20″. That’s HUGE. So let us move onto his large pieces — which, at 20″ x 22″ or 30″ x 20″, are rich with layers and detail. And then you’ll understand that Davison doesn’t mess around; he goes all out when it comes to art. Well, enough then! Drink it in!

The Law (Flashe, graphite, gouache, india ink on Rives BFK)

The Law, detail (Flashe, graphite, gouache, india ink on Rives BFK)

Purgatory (Flashe, gouache, acrylic ink, watercolor, india ink on Rives BFK)

I came across Portland artist Brenna Murphy’s work at a recent trip to a local bar called Valentine’s, and her huge, sprawling digital collage immediately struck my fancy. I can’t quite recall any artist that really makes work like Murphy, whose work may have been created on computers, but use everyday, recognizable objects for an added flair. Her copy-and-pasted tapestries of human forms mixed with mundane curtains and chairs are like Magic Eye pieces with a bit more soul. Please visit her Flickr to see more!

And also, some remarkable moving animated .gifs!