The Desirably Disturbing Digital Art of Ray Caesar. A Look at over 30 of his Works.

above: Ray Caesar, Self-Examination, 2011

I always like to feature an artist whose work has a sort of Goth or macabre style around this time of year, in honor of Halloween. This year, it's digital artist Ray Caesar.



above: Ray Caesar, Pollux, 2005 and Castor, 2005

In a similar genre as fellow contemporary artists Natalie Shau, Mark Ryden Nataly (Kukula) Abramovitch, and Marion Peck, Ray Caesar's digitally created portraits feature a grotesque elegance.


above: Ray Caesar, La Chasse, 2011

Humans and animals that are part insect or arthropod and narratives that imply, illustrate or foretell disaster are executed in an illustrative and delicate manner. Below are many of his works, which are created using 3D modeling computer programs, and studies from the past few years.

Home Coming, 2011:

Home Coming, detail:

Queen on Flies, Companion:

A Familial Affectation:

Ebb Tide:

Fly Trap (study):

Eternity, Eris:

Kitten (study):

Kitten:

Ancient Memory:

Decent, Day Break:

Calamity:

Second Sight:

The Widow's Tea Party, The Angel of Innocent Things:

Monday's Child:

Monday's Child, detail:

Revelation:

Impromptu, Harvest:

Metatron (studies):

Metatron:

detail:

The Burden of Her Memory:

Side Saddle, Wallflowers:

Sleeping (study):


His most recent work and his first solo exhibition at the Corey Helford Gallery, "A Dangerous Inclination," just opened Oct 22.



Corey Helford Gallery
8522 Washington Boulevard
Culver City, CA 90232
T: 310-287-2340 T: 323-363-9338
Open Tuesday - Saturday, Noon to 6:00pm

Arrested Motion has a revealing interview with the artist about his works in the Corey Helford show here.


About the artist:

above image courtesy of Jonathan LeVine Gallery

Ray Caesar was born in 1958 in London. At an early age, his family moved to Toronto, Canada, where he currently resides. From 1977—80 he attended Ontario College of Art, followed by 17 years from 1980—96 working in the art & photography department of the Hospital For Sick Children in Toronto, documenting disturbing cases of child abuse, surgical reconstruction, psychology, and animal research. Coupled with inspiration from surrealists Kahlo and Dali, Caesar’s experiences at the hospital continue to influence his artwork. His haunting imagery is created digitally using 3D modeling software called Maya, mastered while working in digital animation for television and film industries from 1998—2001. In 1999, Caesar received a Primetime Emmy Nomination for Outstanding Special Effects in a series. For more information about the artist, please visit www.raycaesar.com

Several of Ray's enchanting images are available as Ultrachrome prints. For prices on singles and prints, contact belinda@galleryhouse.ca

Ray Caesar's artwork, prints and books can be found and purchased at the following galleries:
Gallery House
Corey Helford Gallery
Richard Goodall Gallery
Vered Gallery
Jonathan LeVine Gallery
Dorothy Circus Gallery

Art to Rave About. Self-Portrait Made Up Of Ecstacy Pills By Artist Scott Blake.

Artist Scott Blake, a Savannah College of Art and Design graduate, specializes in unique forms of digital mosaic and bar code art. A few years back, he created this self-portrait comprised of Ravers favorite drug, MDMA or 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine, more commonly known as Ecstacy or simply "e".






Scott collected all of the XTC pill images from Dancesafe.org, a harm reduction organization promoting safety within the rave community.

Pixel Dimensions - 5184 x 6480
File Size - 61.3 Megabytes
Color Mode - RGB Color
File Format - Photoshop Flattened
Individual Pill Pixel Dimensions - 144 x 144
Pills Generated - 256

See more of his work here.

Christmas 2.0 (or the Digital Story Of The Nativity)

source: wykop.pl

Digital & Real Worlds Collide In Shawn Smith's Pixelated Sculptures.

above: detail of Shawn Smith's Falcon

Game heads, birds, fish, other animals and fire are just a few of the subjects of Shawn Smith's contemporary artwork. But unlike the many artists who choose to interpret these same items in realistic or impressionistic manners, artist Shawn Smith chooses to take them a step further. He combines the digital world with the real world by constructing his sculptures of wood blocks, creating three dimensional pixelated representations of animals and nature.

The artist uses both plain woods such as balsa wood and plywood, and painted woods in colors with ink and acrylics. Here's a look at several of his pieces.

Some of his mounted game heads:




detail:




detail:



Other animals:


Fire:



Birds:








Fish:



Rugs:



The Artist's Statement:
My work investigates the slippery intersection between the digital world and reality. Specifically, I am interested in how we experience nature through technology. When we see images of nature on TV or on a computer screen, we feel that we are seeing nature but we are really only seeing patterns of pixilated light.

For the past few years, I have been creating a series of “Re-things.” These whimsical sculptures represent pixilated animals and objects of nature. I am specifically interested in subjects that I have never seen in real life. I find images of my subjects online and then create three-dimensional sculptural representations of these two-dimensional images. I build my “Re-things” pixel by pixel to understand how each pixel plays a crucial role in the identity of an object. Through the process of pixilation, color is distilled, some bits of information are lost, and the form is abstracted.

Making the intangible tangible, I view my building process as an experiment in alchemy, using man-made composite and recycled materials to represent natural forms.

My conceptual and material practice explores identity, color, labor, technology, and science. As an object maker, I am interested in relating these concepts back to the symbiotic connection between the hand and the “thing.” This relationship is a basic principle in the development of the modern human--biologically, technologically, culturally, and scientifically. I want my work to serve as a conversation starter as to the importance of the “thing” in our history and how this relationship is changing with technology, as we become more removed from first hand experience by observing the world through a screen. (courtesy of Craighead Green Gallery)


About the artist:


Shawn Smith was born in 1972 in Dallas, TX where he attended Arts Magnet High School and Brookhaven College before graduating from Washington University in St. Louis, MO with a BFA in Printmaking in 1995. Smith received his MFA in Sculpture from the California College of the Arts in San Francisco in 2005. He has received artist-in-residencies from the Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, CA and the Cite Internationale des Arts in Paris, France. In 1996, Smith was a recipient of the Clare Hart DeGolyer grant from the Dallas Museum of Art. In 2006, he was commissioned to create a monumental public sculpture in San Francisco, CA. Smith's work has been exhibited throughout the United States and in France. Smith currently resides in Austin, Texas and is represented by Craighead Green Gallery in Dallas and d. berman gallery in Austin.

Shawn Smith