David Olenick’s art combines clever wordplay with cute imagery to create entertaining illustrations a lot of people would want to wear. David finds the funny side of everything from lame excuses, bad decisions, to basic human behavior. You can almost forgive his nasty puns (An adorable hornet saying “Me So Hornet”) when he combines it with a quirky cast of characters. The drawings and lettering themselves are quite simple, but it is the combination of both that brings a genuine smile, or maybe even a laugh or two.
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Ken To made his first bonsai wire tree as a Christmas present for his wife. Poor material and craftsmanship notwithstanding, his loving wife was thoroughly impressed with the concept. He spent the next three years improving his wire-bending skills. In 2010, he made his wife a second bonsai wire tree for Valentine’s which was infinitely better than the first. After finding the perfect wire as well as inspiration in Kevin Iris’s work, Ken became an unstoppable bonsai wire tree – making machine. Ken believes that the only way to get better is through perpetual practice. He now has a LOT of miniature wire bonsai trees, some of which are for sale.
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For reasons known only to herself, Singaporean artist calls this series: “Your Love Is Like A Chunk of Gold”. She has somehow managed to turn an ordinary, everyday object into something alien. The sculptures are still recognizably pieces of bread, but the multicolored crystal growths on them will make anyone look twice. The second look will probably turn into a long, hard stare while the viewer figures out how gems, or possibly Kryptonite, could be made to grow on bread. Sookon describes herself as a ‘teen slacker with delusions of grandeur’. According to her, art took away the slack and augmented the delusions.
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Bonsai is one of the oldest artforms in Japan. Artist Makoto Azuma has taken it a step further by combining the elements of the bonsai with aquascaping. His latest work “Water and Bonsai” is a completely submerged bonsai made of waterlogged branches and creatively attached pieces of java moss. The whole thing is set-up in a tank complete with filter, LED lighting, and C02 diffuser.
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Fabien Merelle graduated from the Beaux-Arts. He is also a former resident of the prestigious Casa Vélasquez in Madrid. ‘Pentateuque’ is part of the 2013 Art Stage Singapore exhibition at the Marina Bay Sands. It’s a lighthearted attempt to translate the maxim ‘to have the weight on one’s shoulders’ into a sculpture. Fabien loves using whimsy, humor, and storytelling to direct the spirit of his pieces. The man in pajamas found in most of Fabien’s work is actually a sort of self-portrait. a man who lives in his dreams out to wear appropriate garb after all.
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Michael Johansson’s art would appeal to those afflicted with OCD. Luggage of the same hue arranged in a perfect cube appeals to a disorganized traveler like me, but it’s not only luggage that falls prey to Michael’s symmetric prowess. He does kitchenware, electrical gadgets, garden tools, and appliances too. Clearly, he spent a lot of time playing Tetris as a boy. Michael lives and works in Sweden.
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Jessica Drenk is a South Carolina-based artist whose unique, nature-inspired sculptures are made from an altogether ubiquitous material. Wooden pencils. She stuck hundreds of pencils together using wood glue and artistically cut and shaped them to vaguely resemble driftwood, stalactites, stalagmites, and shells. She said: “By transforming familiar objects into nature-inspired forms and patterns, I examine how we classify the world around us. Manufactured goods appear as natural objects, something functional becomes something decorative, a simple material is complex, and the commonplace becomes unique.”
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Lucie Thomas and Thibault Zimmermann is the wacky pair behind the art studio Zim&Zou. For their series “The Eternal Jungle”, they’ve created a jungle’s worth of extremely colorful animals out of leftover bits and pieces of leather. And not just any leather, Hermès leather.There’s a parrot, a toucan, a chameleon, and; ironically enough, a monkey which looks suspiciously like the emblem of another famous handbag. They’ve also made detailed food, camera, and train sculptures out of paper.
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Paper has long been a favorite medium of artists. Eric Standley, an aspiring modernist, created extremely detailed, three-dimensional, miniature stained glass windows using multiple layers of laser cut paper. His works are inspired by Gothic and Islamic architecture. Eric received his B.F.A. from the Massachusetts College of Art and his M.F.A. from Savannah College of Art and Design.
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Michihiro Matsuoka’s sculptures are made primarily of industrial resin and resin clay. The springs, nuts, bolts, and other bits and pieces of worn-out machinery give his hybrid animals their signature steampunk look. They’re given an acrylic finish which mimics a chipped and battered look. Some of Michihiro’s steampunk animals have movable parts. His work has had twenty-five exhibitions throughout Japan. He lives and works in Ichinomiya-shi, Aichi, Japan.
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