portraits

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Photography

Toy Stories: Portraits of Children and their Toys Around the World

Gabriele Galimberti spent more than two years traveling the world, visiting over fifty countries to photograph young children with their toys. The Italian photographer shares in a statement on Toy Stories, “I recorded the spontaneous and natural joy that unites kids despite their diverse backgrounds. Whether the child owns a veritable fleet of miniature cars or a single stuffed monkey, the pride that they have is moving, funny, and thought provoking.”

In addition to documenting the socioeconomic range of families around the world, Galimberti’s colorful portraits capture the unique personalities of each young person before his camera lens. The photographer has published a book, also called Toy Stories, which compiles all of the portraits from this series. His other titles include My Couch is your Couch, about how people live around the world, and In Her Kitchen, which documents grandmothers and their culinary traditions. You can see more of Galimberti’s work and travels on Instagram. (via Booooooom)

Art

Dreamlike Landscapes Grow from Sculptural Portraits by Yuanxing Liang

Wondrously detailed worlds emerge from busts of youthful women in clay sculptures by Chinese artist Yuanxing Liang. Ambling trees, bridges, and temples emerge from the figures’ hairline, fusing realism and fantasy in smooth resin. Despite their complex design, Liang occasionally creates small editions of his sculptures. The artist is a gradute of the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts. You can see more of his intricately wrought fantasy worlds on Weibo. (via My Modern Met)

Art

Surreal Paintings by Matthew Grabelsky Take the New York City Subway for a Wild Ride

New York City is sometimes affectionately (or disaffectionately) referred to as a “concrete jungle,” but for Los Angeles-based artist Matthew Grabelsky it’s more of a big cageless zoo. Using the New York City subway system as the setting for his work, Grabelsky paints surreal portraits of people who are seemingly normal from the neck down, but who have had their heads replaced by animals, both wild and domesticated.

Having grown up in New York and being fascinated by the imagery of Greek mythology as a kid, Grabelsky’s paintings are an exploration of human nature and of the way that animals represent various parts of the human subconscious. “The characters are symbolic of the kinds of thoughts that lie under the surface of people’s minds, and they reveal that the most extraordinary can exist in the most ordinary of everyday settings,” the artist told Prohbtd in an interview. “This theme is communicated through the juxtaposition of these ostensibly irrational images with otherwise completely mundane scenes. My idea is that my creatures are not original but are ultimately part of a much larger cultural continuum.”

Since graduating Cum Laude from Rice University in 2002 with a BA in Art and Art History (and a BS in Astrophysics), Matthew Grabelsky has shown in dozens of group exhibitions and solo shows around the world. In 2017 he was tapped by electronic musician Moby to paint an album cover featuring a father cow reading a book to his calf. To see more of Grabelsky’s work, follow him on Instagram.

Illustration

Swirling Lines and Swaths of Charcoal Form Dramatic Portraits by Lee.K

Seoul-based artist Lee.K creates incredibly dynamic portraits using combinations of charcoal, pencil, and ink. The artist layers fine cross contour lines over broad swaths of charcoal to build hair, cheekbones, noses, and eyes with a strong sense of life despite the grayscale palette. You can see more from Lee on Instagram. (via Booooooom)

 

Art

Richly Textured Portraits of Native Arctic Residents and European Explorers by Preta Wolzak

In her series Ma Petite Inuite and Everybody Needs A Hero, artist Preta Wolzak explores the parallel histories of people on the earth’s poles. Her colorful portraits are constructed of leather, embroidery thread, wool, and glow-in-the-dark twine, combined to depict faces of both the first people of the North and 19th century explorers of the South, including Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton.

Wolzak shares with Colossal that she uses her artistic practice to draw attention to the impact that tourism, manifest destiny, and climate change has had particularly on both the North and South Poles. Our exploratory interest in these seemingly far-off places has direct impacts on the people who live close to the Arctic and Antarctic.

Wolzak is represented by Rademakers Gallery in Amsterdam, where her solo show opens on May 24 and is on view until June 17, 2018. You can see more of her work on Instagram.

Art

Mesmerizing New Collages by Lola Dupré Distort the Human Form into Gravity-Defying Shapes

Collage artist Lola Dupré (previously) continues to create mind-boggling manipulations of photographs in her surreal style. The Scotland-based artist cuts images into thousands of shards and arranges them to create her intricate collages. In rearranging the photo fragments, Dupré adds unusual elongations of faces and limbs, multiplies eyes and mouths, and bends bodies in defiance of gravity and anatomy. Her work is often commissioned for magazine editorials—included here are several examples of recent projects. You can see more of the artist’s surreal creations on her website (where originals are for sale), as well as on tumblr and Behance. She also shares her process on Instagram.

Photography

An Examination of the Color Black in Gorgeous Portraits by Yannis Davy Guibinga

Self-taught Gabonese photographer Yannis Davy Guibinga is known for portraits that highlight the diversity of cultures and identities in the African diaspora. His works are often richly hued, with subjects positioned against bright gradient backgrounds or adorned in warm tones.

In his project The Darkest Colour however, Guibinga moves away from his multi-colored photo shoots to focus entirely on the color black and its relationship to darkness, mourning, and death. The series is set in front of a matte black background and features two nude models whose skin has also been painted black. The works seek to unpack the negative aspects of the both the color and its symbolism.

“Black is generally the colour associated with tragedy, death, and mourning, and the act of passing away is considered to be a tragedy in many cultures,” Guibinga tells Colossal. “‘The Darkest Colour’ seeks to redefine association of black and death with tragedy and sadness by representing the act of passing away as more of a relaxing experience.”

The 22-year-old photographer is currently a student in professional photography at Marsan College in Montreal. You can see more of his portraits, like his series 2050 which explores the future of fashion from a black woman’s perspective, on his website and Instagram. (via WideWalls)