Overfed McDonald's M

Here's a keeper! It's a sculpture by Helmut Smits, a Rotterdam-based installation artist. More about him here.

Conor Harrington

Irish born, London based artist Conor Harrington paints large-scale realist portraits that he blends, blocks or/and shatters through graffiti messes or painterly pools of chaos.

Harrington's studio-based works are incredibly beautiful paintings that have received praise by both urban artists and gallery goers. His street-level ventures, offerings of highly-executed charcoal studies that he pastes up on walls, gates and doors, or masterfully executed magnifications of his work usually found on canvas, are somewhat unexpected. Harrington is raising the bar for street level painting outside of traditional graffiti. Find his site here, and his work-in-progress blog here.

From top to bottom: Where The Sun Does Shine (2006); Dislodge The General (2007); All Sound and Fury (2007); The Truman Gate (2007)

Dan Perjovschi

Romanian artist Dan Perjovschi is probably best known for his simple and cheeky wall drawings. They are brilliant and right to the point. Find his website here. He was recently interviewed while working in New York last April. That link is here.

À l'écoute

Portishead Third (Mercury/Island)
Here's a great and raw new release by the famous trip-hopticians Portishead. It's a dark record, and that's a good thing. If you like the band, you'll love this perfect evolution of 'em.


New York's The Dirty Projectors' Rise Above (Western Vinyl)
I was introduced to TDP's music a few months back when Love, Anna and I we're in the woods recording our second album. Rise Above was our driving soundtrack. A few listens committed my ears to this awesome and dynamic band. This one's a perfect entry point.

Bas Jan Ader (.com)

I just found a beautiful website about the work of Bas Jan Ader. I also found out from the site that director Rene Daalder made a film about the man, entitled Here Is Always Somewhere Else (2007). Details on that here.

Shown above is a still from 1971's I'm Too Sad To Tell You.

Kelly Wood

Here are beautiful colour photographs by Vancouver's Kelly Wood. More on her work can be found on Catriona Jeffries Gallery's website.

Images from top to bottom: Mine (1995); Lucky (1995); First (1995); and Gift (1995). All are from www.ccca.ca

VALIE EXPORT

Austrian-born artist VALIE EXPORT (all caps, all the time) is best know for her work as a performance, conceptual and body-art artist. Her long career keeps on unfolding, pushing whatever boundaries that surrounds the arts or contemporary medias. Her extensive website can be found here.

Works from top to bottom: Smart Export—Selbstportrat (1969); Tap and Touch Cinema (1968); Action Pants: Genital Panic (1969).

Work In Progress v2.0

Painted with Castro over the weekend. Here's the progress shots and the final piece.

This photo by Trevor Goodwin.

Ten Years of Minus 2

Toronto-based graffiti artist Minus 2 is celebrating 10 years of graffiti work. Know mostly for his freight trains painted in the early to mid-2000's, his work can also be found on many Toronto walls. Here's his latest. More work by Minus 2 can be found on Visual Orgasm's website. Once there, type in "minus2" in the search by writer field.