Weekly Weird Art: Jarosław Jaśnikowski
By Sam Reeve
Jarosław Jaśnikowski is a Polish surrealist whose style will seem familiar to you if you’ve seen the work of the other fabulous Polish painters Zdzisław Beksiński or Dariusz Zawadzki.
The first thing we’ll get to is the pronunciation of his name, since I don’t want any of you to sound like a tit when talking about weird art. So, to the best of my ability, Jarosław Jaśnikowski is pronounced like YAH-RO-SWAV YASH-NEE-KOV-SKEE. Just remember that the weird Ł sounds like our W, and their W is our V.
Now that our mini Polish lesson is complete…
Jaśnikowski was born in Legnica, Poland, in 1976. He’s said that Salvador Dali (note the melting clocks) and science fiction are two of his main influences. What I can glean from Google translated pages of his website is that he feels his paintings are windows into the “Alternate World” he invented, one where our laws of physics don’t apply and things basically get freaky.
To check out more of his work, visit his (all Polish) galeria here.
Weekly Weird Art: Christopher Ulrich
By Sam Reeve
Christopher Ulrich’s iconographic work is heavily influenced by religion, alchemy and the occult. He’s one of my favourite artists and I’m not sure why I waited so long to share his work here.
Visit his website to see more, or give him a like on Facebook to hear his latest news.
Weekly Weird Art: Yves Tanguy
By Sam Reeve
Yves Tanguy (1900-1955) was a French surrealist painter. He was born in Paris and didn’t develop an interest in painting until he was in his early 20’s, after discovering a painting by Giorgio de Chirico. He ultimately fell in with the likes of André Breton and Jacques Prévert, leading to his first solo exhibition in 1927.
He took to the lifestyle of the “starving artist” like a fish to water, which ended his first marriage sometime in the 30’s.
There was a somewhat happy ending for Yves – in 1938 he met fellow surrealist painter Kay Sage, who he followed back to America during the war and later married. The two of them grew old together on a farm in Connecticut, where they had converted an old barn into an art studio. Yves was cremated after his death in 1955, and after his wife committed suicide and was cremated in 1963, their ashes were scattered together on the coast of Brittany.
Here is a picture of Yves and Kay in their later years:
Below is a selection of his paintings. His wife’s work is certainly worth checking out as well. Enjoy!
Weekly Weird Art: Cody Schibi Interview
By Sam Reeve
Today for our weekly dose of weird art we have Cody Schibi, an amazing artist who was kind enough to answer some questions. First, let’s get some basic facts straight before jumping into the interview.
Cody was born and raised in Texas, and now resides in Austin. He works as a freelance artist, mostly with ink and watercolours, and sweats pure awesomeness.
Now let’s get to it!
Sam: You started out working in film. How did you first get into that?
Cody: I met a friend of mine a few years after I moved to Austin who was an independent film maker. I was completely neglecting my art at that time as I didn’t do anything with it for many years & was wanting to get creative & motivated again. He was shooting some shorts & trailers & I simply started doing ALL the art for his projects. I mean everything from storyboards, conceptual art, set design, costume design…I even BUILT the sets for one of his scifi features which was a blast! After those initial experiences I started to get calls from other, larger production companies mostly needing storyboard & conceptual art work. I spent a few years doing that, but grew a little tired with the intense deadlines & not having my art seen except by directors & cinematographers & those kind of peeps. So I went totally freelance about three years ago & started doing what I’m doing now.
S: What drew you, and continues to draw you, to working mostly in ink and watercolors? When did you first start experimenting with that and what made you stick with it instead of going on to work with something else, like say oils other paints?
C: I’ve always been a simple pen & ink guy. My black & white, fine line work is my personal favorite stuff & still what I do most of today. Watercolors came with experimentation & I just fell in love with it’s forgiving presence but also the possibility of brilliant accidents when you get all splattery & messy with it. Inking on top of it is a combo that fits with what I want to create. Other paints still intimidate me. I’ve done a few acrylic pieces & have pushed oils around before, but the quick drying time & other factors freak me out. I’m in awe of artists who work in that medium…
S: Are there any things you want to experiment with but haven’t yet?
C: I’m in the process of beginning to work on vinyl figures. I was approached a few months ago by a curator of a custom toy show that’s gonna happen later in the new year & the lineup he has includes some heavy hitters in the “Custom World”, so I’ve just started to experiment with that & am loving it!
I also really want to try graffiti/painting on walls/murals. I have some friends here in Austin who are amazing at it & they’ve invited me out, but I haven’t bite at the invitation yet. That’s something I’m definitely gonna start in 2013 though…
[UPDATE: See Cody’s first wall painting below, posted to Twitter just yesterday]
S: Could you give our readers a brief rundown on what BULLMOOSE is and when we can expect to see some previews?
C: BULLMOOSE is a story created by my brother, Lance. It’s an ongoing series about historical figures (Theodore Roosevelt is the main character) & historical events that are altered in a crazy way. It’s super fun & wacky with their journey having a dark undertone of horror. There are already a few character images up at www.BULLMOOSEtheComic.com & my bro is gonna start updating regularly in the new year with my pages, panels & some exciting news regarding the release & guest artists.
S: What’s it like collaborating with your brother on BULLMOOSE?
C: We’re identical twins, so we’ve always had this easy & fun communication our whole lives. He has the majority of things already written out, and when I start thumb nailing & illustrating the panels he sometimes adds stuff (which has slightly altered the direction of certain things). It’s a completely open collaboration that we’re having fun with. As long as the ideas benefit the story, we’re open to anything. We’re obviously taking our time with everything to make it as wild & cool as we can & we hope everyone who eventually reads it will think the same!
S: I hear you’re really into horror movies. What are some of your favorites? What upcoming horror films are you most excited about?
C: SO many to choose from! I’m a huge Evil Dead fan & the remake of it coming out soon is one I’m actually really pumped to see. I’m especially a freak for 80s horror: Re-Animator, Basket Case, Creepshow, Sleepaway Camp, The Thing, Critters, Hellraiser, etc… I’m a big Eli Roth, Adam Green, Don Coscarelli, Joe Lynch fan so all their upcoming stuff I’m excited about. You can’t touch Lucio Fulci’s films as well. I can really ramble on & on about horror movies all day…
S: Are there any upcoming exhibits or announcements you’d like everyone at Bizarro Central to know about?
C: Some of my upcoming events:
- San Antonio, TX Jan. 26th – ARTSLAM! Seven Year Jam – live painting w/ L’amour Supreme, Buff Monster, Nychos
- Laredo, TX Feb. 9th – WHEN THE EVIL CAME comic book signing @ Legacy Comics
- Austin, TX March 2-3rd – STAPLE! The Independent Media Expo
Also working on a piece for a music tribute show during SXSW at Guzu Gallery as well signing on to do a few more conventions later in the year…
To see more of Cody’s work, visit his website, Twitter or Facebook, or maybe (if you’re feeling fancy), check out his extremely affordable kick-ass prints and original artwork for sale here.
Day 31: Dariusz Zawadzki
By Sam Reeve
Today mark’s the last of Weird Art Month for 2012. We survived both the apocalypse and Shitmas together, and are now hurtling into 2013, towards unknown adventures and misfortunes! Thanks to all who’ve followed along with us this month, and keep watch every Saturday for a Weekly Weird Art post.
At some point this week I’ll get around to rounding up all the artists and listing them on one page with all the links.
Cheers!
****
Dariusz Zawadzki was born in NW Poland. Check out his seldom updated website here, or his deviantART profile here.
Day 28: Erik Mark Sandberg
By Sam Reeve
Erik Mark Sandberg was born in 1975 in Minnesota and now resides in Los Angeles. He received a BFA and now teaches at several different art colleges.
Visit his website here (which has a limited selection of his art), or his Flickr photostream (which is more complete).
Day 20: Tomek Setowski
By Sam Reeve
Tomek Setowski comes from near Krakow, Poland. He started painting at a very young age, and has been exhibiting his work since the late 80’s. Read his full bio here.
Happy Thursday!
Day 10: Fulvio di Piazza
By Sam Reeve
Fulvio di Piazza, born in Italy in 1969, paints some of the most awesomely detailed landscapes you’ll ever see (so I’ll keep this short and sweet).
Happy Monday!
Day 5: Félix Labisse
By Sam Reeve
Today we have the French surrealist Felix Labisse (1905-1982). Over the course of his life time Labisse hung around with many of the great surrealists, including Max Ernst and René Magritte. Besides painting and drawing, he was also a set designer for theatre productions.
If you happen to understand French, you can find a detailed timeline of his life here.
His works often featured strange, coloured women, and no, I don’t mean black chicks. The series with the blue women were his most famous.
I’ve put the paintings in chronological order, in case you care (but probably you don’t). If you want to check out more of his work, visit this Flickr photostream, where you can find a large portion of his work and nicely organized by decade.
Enjoy!
Day 3: Paul Wunderlich
By Sam Reeve
Our third artist for this awesome month of weird art is the German surrealist Paul Wunderlich. Paul was born in Eberswalde, Germany in 1927 and died just a couple of years ago. Paul was educated and eventually taught lithography and etching. He divided his time between Germany and France up until his death.
Paul not only painted, but sculpted and created graphic art. Enjoy!
Day 3: Max Ernst
By Sam Reeve
You’ve seen a horror artist and the colourful work of an adorable Japanese lady, but now it’s time to get old school with Max Ernst, the German Surrealist.
Born in 1891 near Cologne, Max was heavily influenced by his father Phillip, who was an amateur painter himself. In university, Max studied philosophy, art history and literature, as well as psychiatry, which lead him to visit asylums. It was there that Max became fascinated with the strange art created by the patients.
Max was drafted during WW1, but luckily for those of us that love his work, he survived, and married shortly after the war and had a son (who went on to become a painter as well). Befriending other surrealists of the era like Paul Éluard, Joan Miró i Ferrà and Hans Arp, Max was always surrounded by like-minded creative people.
Just before WW2 Max was interned in France, but thanks to some of his artist buddies he got out, though he was soon arrested again by the Gestapo. Luckily he was able to escape and flee to America. There he met and married his third (and final) wife, Dorothea Tanning, who was also an artist.
They both moved to a small town in the south of France in the early 50’s, and Max continued his work until he died in Paris in 1976 at the age of 84.
Sounds like this guy’s art is as crazy as his life was.
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