Following the release of his Fantagraphics book with portraits of all 44 U.S. presidents, illustrator Drew Friedman brings his satirical, “warts-and-all” style to Ohio State University’s Fr...
https://hifructose.com/2019/11/22/drew-friedman-shares-presidential-portraits-in-exhibition/
In the recent, enormous portraits painted by Mike Dargas, the artist pays homage to major figures in art history and tucks surprises into their contours. With “The Unbreakable," which honors Fr...
https://hifructose.com/2019/08/02/the-recent-paintings-of-mike-dargas/
Sarah Ball's oil paintings, subtle in their complexity, are intended for the viewer to encounter the portrait's subject intimately. The practice of physiognomy, or judging the character of a pers...
https://hifructose.com/2019/07/20/the-painted-portraits-of-sarah-ball/
Carl Randall captures the energy and heartbeats of London and Tokyo through his crowded paintings, each figure its own portrait of a real pedestrian in his or her respective city. Toying with pe...
https://hifructose.com/2019/03/02/the-crowded-paintings-of-carl-randall/
Jen Mann ’s stirring oil portraits blend realism and abstraction, isolating aspects of the face for photo-negative representations and graphic notes. Mann uses contemporary iconography in her w...
https://hifructose.com/2018/09/13/jenn-manns-oil-portraits-packed-with-contemporary-symbols/
Rebecca Morgan ’s portraits of country folk are delightfully weird if somewhat off-putting. Set in hunting camps and other woodsy environments, the artist's work is an exploration of rural and ...
Rebecca Hastings ' art is a family affair. The Australian artist uses herself and her children as the focal subjects in her highly realist oil paintings - yet noticeably absent from these portrai...
https://hifructose.com/2016/07/28/rebecca-hastings-explores-the-many-sides-to-motherhood/
Annemarie Busschers (featured on our blog here ) is fascinated by human imperfection. As a society, we tend to run away from anything that renders us imperfect - yet from the artist's viewpoint,...
https://hifructose.com/2016/07/14/annemarie-busschers-portraits-embrace-imperfection/
For more than thirty years, Kerry James Marshall has been creating art to inspire important conversations about African American history and identity. His paintings follow the grand traditions o...
https://hifructose.com/2016/06/27/creating-new-narratives-kerry-james-marshall/
Jerome Lagarrigue has depicted many subjects throughout his career- boxers and supermodels to his multi-racial Brooklyn neighbors- but his focus has always been simply, "painting people". The Fr...
https://hifructose.com/2016/05/31/jerome-lagarrigue-paints-brooklyn-locals-in-red-hook-sonata/
Rebecca Mason Adams 's moody acrylic paintings have an edge of realism that makes them look incredibly like black and white photographs. This is because the Providence, RI based artist, currently...
https://hifructose.com/2016/05/16/rebecca-mason-adamss-moody-monochromatic-portraits/
In depicting the human condition, Jean-Paul Mallozzi uses paint to express emotional narratives. His oil paintings make use of thickly painted areas, moving from more accurate detail to abstract...
A child of a bustling city of contrast and colors, Rodrigo Branco 's affinity for abstraction may come as no surprise. But his blurred portraits of local people in São Paulo, created using patch...
https://hifructose.com/2016/04/06/rodrigo-branco-turns-his-visual-impairment-into-abstract-painting/
There is a magical simplicity about Brookyn based painter Alyssa Monk's oil portraits, where looking at her work is like looking into the reflection of a forest pool. Her images portray ghostly f...
Nigerian artist Oresegun Olumide goes beyond realism with his meticulously detailed oil paintings that could easily be mistaken for photographs. Notoriously difficult to capture in fine art, wat...
https://hifructose.com/2016/03/12/behind-oresegun-olumides-hyperrealistic-portraits/
Interpretations of Lyon based Eric Lacombe's mixed media works and paintings have been varied and extreme: monstrous, melancholy, horrific, and even beautiful. Describing his art as "caricatures...
https://hifructose.com/2016/03/11/eric-lacombe-portrays-mourning-figures-in-the-weight-of-silence/
Self-taught Romanian collage artists Silviu and Irina Székley consider their works to be “conceptual spontaneities” that distort familiar images into new, transfigured realities. The duo ta...
https://hifructose.com/2016/03/11/silviu-and-irina-szekleys-kalaidescopic-collages/
You have probably seen the work of Lithuanian artist Karolis Strautniekas - he has worked with Audi, Mini Cooper, The New York Times, among many other global enterprises; while his personal proje...
https://hifructose.com/2016/03/10/karolis-strautniekas-stylized-digital-portraits-from-behind/
Collage artist Maja Egli creates surreal portraits by manipulating various images of women to work together as complex unities. Her work can be read both as a feminist statement and as a larger c...
https://hifructose.com/2016/03/08/maja-eglis-collages-of-women-mix-handmade-and-digital-techniques/
Canadian artist Alex Garant's "double-eyed" portraits, featured here on our blog , have become instantly recognizable for the dizzying effect they create. Her style of overlaying her subject's fe...
https://hifructose.com/2016/02/04/alex-garant-presents-new-double-eyed-portraits-in-wakefulness/
San Francisco based artist John Wentz plays with texture and abstraction in what he calls his "fractured" oil paintings of figures. Previously featured on our blog , the figures in Went'z work h...
https://hifructose.com/2016/01/20/john-wentz-debuts-new-fractured-portrait-series-at-la-art-show/
The explosive abstract portraiture of Los Angeles based artist Justin Bower is currently featured in a new exhibition at MOAH (Lancaster Museum of Art and History), "Thresholds". Previously feat...
Chinese born, California based artist Vincent Xeus paints his portraits with a sensitive treatment of light and shading to an almost haunting effect. Though his work shares elements of 17th-cent...
Halloween is supposed to be about embracing the sinister, but somewhere along the way, sinister became sexy. Enter the sexy Halloween costume. Artist Deborah Oropallo embraces this costume pheno...
https://hifructose.com/2015/10/21/deborah-oropallo-dresses-famous-subjects-in-halloween-costumes/
As a young girl, artist Margaret Bowland 's favorite books and songs told stories about love and life, stories that condition girls to expect certain things out of life and want to be a certain w...
https://hifructose.com/2015/10/20/margaret-bowland-finds-the-meaning-of-power-in-new-portraits/
Canadian-born artist Andrew Salgado borrows a variety of influences from art history and popular culture, to paint portraits of deconstructed identities. The people Salgado chooses to portray are...
https://hifructose.com/2015/10/15/andrew-salgado-deconstructs-identity-with-figurative-abstraction/
New York based artist Hope Gangloff paints expressive and visually striking portraits with emotional depth. First covered here , her portraits primarily depict family, friends and other artists ...
https://hifructose.com/2015/10/15/hope-gangloffs-expressive-and-visually-striking-portraits/
Spanish artist “Salusitano” paints large-scale mixed media portraits of gazing figures. His works are precisely detailed, oftentimes with 60 layers of paint or more. Appearing almost hyper-r...
https://hifructose.com/2015/10/01/salusitano-paints-large-detailed-portraits-of-gazing-figures/
Korean born artist Samantha Wall's black and white works explore the complexities of race, particularly her own multi-raciality’ between living in Korea and now the United States. First featur...
https://hifructose.com/2015/09/30/samantha-wall-explores-race-in-let-your-eyes-adjust-to-the-dark/
In cartoons, when a character is having a bad day, or particularly depressed, he will have his own small dark cloud following him, often raining and occasionally hitting him with lightning. The m...
https://hifructose.com/2015/09/22/yang-cao-paints-his-subjects-their-own-personal-rainclouds/
First featured in Hi-Fructose Vol. 26 , Dunedin, New Zealand based artist Sarah Dolby has always created character driven portraits. Her paintings combine aspects of traditional portraiture with...
https://hifructose.com/2015/09/18/sarah-dolbys-latest-fairytale-character-driven-portraits/
Minneapolis based artist Michael Carson captures the fleeting moments of stylish modern day people. While there is a sense of immediacy in painting them, there is also a timelessness in their 40s...
https://hifructose.com/2015/09/14/michael-carson-captures-the-fleeting-moments-of-modern-people/
Los Angeles based artist Justin Bower’s larger than life oil paintings feature anonymous subjects that appear digitized, but are painstakingly hand-painted. Through their expressive, glitchy f...
https://hifructose.com/2015/09/07/justin-bower-exhibits-glitchy-new-paintings-in-the-humiliations/
Swedish artist Mikael Takacs creates mesmerizing paintings that he then distorts with marble effects. His subjects are people that he has met in his own life, warped into his own interpretations...
https://hifructose.com/2015/09/04/mikael-takacs-creates-mesmerizing-paintings-with-marble-effects/
With the invent of GPS technology and map applications, paper maps are waning in use - but they are an essential material to English artist Ed Fairburn , who uses them as the canvas of his detail...
https://hifructose.com/2015/08/31/portrait-artist-ed-fairburn-uses-maps-as-his-canvas/
Dallas, Texas based artist Michael Reeder paints eclectic portraits that explore ideas about identity. Reeder is fascinated by the various characteristics that define us, and his works mix tho...
https://hifructose.com/2015/08/22/michael-reeder-explores-identity-in-eclectic-portraits/
Quebec, Cananda based artist Mathieu Laca often plays with shape and form in his oil paintings. His latest series increases his usual level of distortion in warped portraits of historical figur...
https://hifructose.com/2015/08/20/mathieu-lacas-warped-portraits-of-historical-figures/
Mixed media artist Lauren Brevner paints eclectic and fantastic portraits of women ornamented with a collage of Japanese motifs. Born of mixed heritage in Vancouver, she recently moved to Osaka ...
https://hifructose.com/2015/07/29/lauren-brevners-eclectic-japanese-collage-paintings-of-women/
Denmark based artist Rune Christensen tells stories in the tattoos and printed clothing of his decorated figures. As a self taught painter with a graffiti background, Christensen is well travele...
https://hifructose.com/2015/07/23/denmark-artist-rune-christensens-paintings-of-tattooed-subjects/
Growing up in rural Colorado, Oregon based artist David Rice forged a special connection with his environment, which he develops in his colorful illustrations. His works focus on themes of natur...
Annapolis based multimedia artist Jeff Huntington make connections between seemingly opposing images using patterns and emotion. It was his father, the subject of his painting series "Plaques and...
https://hifructose.com/2015/07/09/jeff-huntington-paints-layered-portraits-with-superimposed-images/
Syd Bee is a Seattle-based painter that creates figurative paintings that often appear to exist in a dreamlike state. Working in oils, the artist employs a technique of creating a pastel-hued glo...
England based artist Dylan Andrews uses light and shadow to portray emotion in his drawings. His monochromatic charcoal portraits build up to a dramatic intensity that is almost surreal. Owi...
https://hifructose.com/2015/05/22/dylan-andrews-charcoal-portraits-play-with-shadows/
Often using himself as a subject, Madrid-based painter Eloy Morales paints large-scale, expressive portraits that hone in on the uniqueness of the human face. Morales often depicts his subjects ...
https://hifructose.com/2015/05/12/eloy-morales-debuts-new-large-scale-portraits-in-about-head/
New Zealand based artist Peter Stichbury combines attractive good looks with ugliness in 1950s style portraits. His Big-Eyed young subjects represent non-conventional beauty, something we can fi...
https://hifructose.com/2015/05/05/attractive-and-awkward-portraits-by-peter-stichbury/
Canadian artist Alex Garant paints realistic portraits that capture her subjects in multiples. Using traditional portrait techniques, her oil paintings combine graphic design elements with abstr...
https://hifructose.com/2015/04/28/alex-garants-double-eyed-oil-paintings/
Born in Canada and based in Manhattan, Karel Funk discovered the meaning of personal space while riding the New York subway for the first time. His subjects are the every day men and women he o...
https://hifructose.com/2015/04/21/portraits-of-hooded-figures-by-karel-funk/
Tomas Clayton takes us back 100 years with his nostalgic portraits set in the World War I era. Re-imagining documentary photographs and artifacts from this time period, Clayton creates enigmatic...
Italian artist Marco Grassi applies his hyperrealist painting chops to portraits that are slightly unconventional. While he paints mostly young, beautiful female subjects in traditional studio s...
https://hifructose.com/2015/04/08/marco-grassis-portraits-put-hyperrealism-slightly-off-balance/
Illinois based artist Anne Harris has a Renaissance-inspired technique, but there's an emotional realism in her portraits. One of her primary interests as a painter is to portray the complex re...
https://hifructose.com/2015/03/04/anne-harris-contemplates-presence-in-translucent-portraits/
South African artist Ryan Hewett looks straight to the core of his subjects in boldly expressive paintings. For his upcoming exhibition "Untitled" at the Unit London , opening April 24th, Hewett...
https://hifructose.com/2015/02/18/preview-new-works-by-ryan-hewett-at-the-unit-london/
Yasuyo Fujibe's softspoken, decorative works immediately caught our eye at LA Art Show last week. Her pieces there represented a departure from her older monochromatic paintings of faces in fav...
https://hifructose.com/2015/01/22/yasuyo-fujibes-portraits-merge-islamic-and-japanese-art/
Haris Purmono's hyperrealistic portraits illustrate resilience. The Indonesian artist began his practice in the 1970s under Suharto's military government and the battle-scarred faces of his civi...
https://hifructose.com/2015/01/15/haris-purmonos-honest-portraits-show-the-faces-of-indonesia/
These colorful, sometimes discomforting portraits by Tehran-based artist Afarin Sajedi present a unique image of strength. They are the many faces and mixed emotions of modern Iranian women, par...
https://hifructose.com/2015/01/07/afarin-sajedis-portaits-of-women-redefine-strength/
One of the most striking features of David Slone's high-definition portraits is his treatment of his subjects' skin. In each larger-than-life oil painting of an anonymous individual, Slone zeroe...
"Their world was soft like melancholy. The conversation was silent. Their faces were small and round, incapable of invoking fear. Once the door was open, nothing could be unseen." This is how Kat...
https://hifructose.com/2014/12/13/on-view-safe-from-tomorrow-by-kathie-olivas-at-afa-gallery/
Soey Milk has seen a lot of creative and personal growth in the past year- she tackles life with the same focus as her precisely detailed, figurative paintings. When we last caught up with her,...
https://hifructose.com/2014/12/04/preview-sinavro-by-soey-milk-at-chg-circa/
New Jersey-based artist Nancy Depew's depictions of nature are luxurious and manicured. Her oil paintings combine traditional elements of portraiture, still life and landscape, fusing these gen...
https://hifructose.com/2014/12/01/nancy-depews-sensual-portraits-of-nudes-surrounded-by-lush-flora/
Polish painter Ewa Juszkiewicz subverts canonical portraiture by playing with viewers' expectations. Poised damsels that evoke Renaissance-era nobility stand with their hands clasped and their ...
https://hifructose.com/2014/11/07/ewa-juszkiewicz-creates-twisted-versions-of-canonical-portraits/
This Saturday, Merry Karnowsky gallery will present three side by side solo shows by Los Angeles based artists Mercedes Helnwein , Kim Kimbro , and Vonn Sumner . Together, their new works are el...
Setting soft and supple nudes against graphic patterns and textures, Brooklyn-based painter Sharon Sprung utilizes the tension between abstraction and realism to appease her own inner dichotomie...
https://hifructose.com/2014/08/12/sharon-sprungs-portraits-of-contemplative-women/
The hyper-realistic oil paintings of Joshua Suda will make you question whether you’re looking at a painting or a photograph as he recreates the features of the human face with stunning accura...
https://hifructose.com/2014/07/16/escape-artist-joshua-sudas-subjects-break-through-the-surface/
Chilean artist Alvaro Tapia finds something sinister even in his most innocent subjects. His portrait illustrations feature friends, famous people, artists and others he admires. What lurks bene...
https://hifructose.com/2014/07/16/alvaro-tapias-intense-portraits-channel-a-range-of-emotions/
Rifle through French artist Julie Sarloutte's art supplies and you might find not tubes of oil paint, but dozens of thread bundles. At first glance, her works appear to be paint on canvas, the u...
https://hifructose.com/2014/07/09/julie-sarlouttes-hand-embroidered-portraits-depict-conflict/
Argentinian photographer Romina Ressia shoots disorienting portraits, playing with textiles and props to adorn her sitters and their environments. Her recent series, "Renaissance Cubism," is Res...
https://hifructose.com/2014/07/07/uncanny-photographic-portraits-by-romina-ressia/
On Saturday night, Thinkspace celebrated Jacub Gagnon’s second solo exhibition at the gallery with “Worlds Collide” (previewed here ). “My paintings become a space in which nature becom...
Jennifer Nehrbass's artworks look like collages at a first glance, but the seemingly cut and pasted images of geological formations, abstract patterns and human characters are actually painted w...
https://hifructose.com/2014/06/02/jennifer-nehrbasss-oil-paintings-explore-various-personas/
Detroit based artist Akira Beard has a self-described obsession with the human face and hot color palettes. When we last saw him, he was living in San Francisco and celebrating his ‘American I...
https://hifructose.com/2014/05/17/new-drippy-surreal-portraits-from-akira-beard/