The artwork of Brian Jungen.

This month in Art in America there is an article about Brian Jungen. Jungen's artwork takes modern day common objects and transforms them into different cultural icons. His work draws reference to Marcel Duchamp's readymades but takes them to the next level. His work is awe inspiring, beautifully crafted, and brilliantly conceived.

The following passage is from wikipedia:
Jungen's art draws upon the tradition of "found art", espoused by such twentieth-century artists as Andy Warhol and Marcel Duchamp. Instead of presenting objects "as-is," however, Jungen often reworks them without fully concealing their original meaning or purpose. For instance, Jungen's series Prototypes of New Understanding consists of aboriginal masks assembled and hand-sewn from parts of Nike Air Jordan shoes. Jungen writes: "It was interesting to see how by simply manipulating the Air Jordan shoes you could evoke specific cultural traditions whilst simultaneously amplifying the process of cultural corruption and assimilation. The Nike mask sculptures seemed to articulate a paradoxical relationship between a consumerist artefact and an 'authentic' native artifact."

R.I.P. Dennis Hopper.

Dennis Hopper passed away this morning at his residence in Venice, California. Surrounded by friends and family, he finally lost his long battle with cancer. While Hopper is best known for his acting roles in Blue Velvet, Easy Rider, and Apocalypse Now, he was also a talented artist that exhibited worldwide and was connected to some of the most prominent artists of our times including Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Willem De Kooning, and Ed Ruscha.

As well as being a part of the American pop art scene Hopper also had an extensive fine art collection.

Here are some fine examples of Hopper's photography as well as paintings. R.I.P.

The photography of Brian Kelley.

Living in New York I often meet some of the most talented people in their chosen field and never even realize until I get linked up to them on the computer. One such photographer is Brian Kelly, or BK as I know him. We met at Zoo York awhile back and I knew he was a photographer but never of his amazing talent. BK's photos are not your ordinary skate photos, they are so much more. He takes into account all of the small details as well as the large ones. His colors, settings, lighting, and composition all play an important part of what he shoots and the results are original and inspiring.

BK's clients include some of the best including Nike, 5Boro, HUF, 12 Oz. Prophet and Red Bull.

You can see more of his work here.

Vintage Postage Stamps

These vintage postage stamps are great reference for solid, clean design. It always amazes me how simple design was back in the day, but how perfect it was at the same time.

Vintage TWA Travel Posters.

Back in an era when companies actually spent money to make their image look exciting and employed talented artists and illustrators. These TWA posters are fine examples of design and illustration for a new era of air travel. I bet you even got a meal on the flight!