New Masters

Up and running at the Subliminal Projects Gallery located on Sunset Boulevard is the exhibition titled New Masters. Until June 4, eight contemporary artists will explore the classical figure with touches of modern beauty.

Artists Mary Jane Ansell, Sean Cheetham, Ron English, Benjamin Bryce Kelly, Miles ‘Mac’ MacGregor, Ann Marshall, Stephen Wright and Jonathan Yeo are the ‘New Masters’ of portraying the Old Masters’ technical virtuosity with a contemporary approach. Working in painting, print and sculptures, the artists revolutionize the classical figure of the human figure developed and admired by the Old Masters of art.

The Old Masters were lost and hopeless in finding the most aesthetically compelling and attractive representation of the human body and turned to anatomy, musculature and proportion of Greek and Roman sculpture for help. The result was truly an unprecedented innovation. The Renaissance classical figure became a refinement of the flat human body representation.

The New Masters? Well, they do what the Old Masters did, except with a tint of modernization.

The New Masters, pulling from the Old Masters, develop a new and better classical figure with their heightened ability to understand their subjects. The quality of the human anatomy combined with today’s feelings and surrounding beliefs are recreated on new techniques and mediums while keeping the classical figure in tact.

Hyperrealism, but somehow with aesthetic beauty in touch, of the human body is what it is. Even I, who find the human body not that special and rather disgusting, couldn’t get my eyes off the smooth flowing musculatures of the figures in the pieces.

Subliminal Projects is located at 1331 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles. For more information, visit subliminalprojects.com.



Spaceknuckle’s All The Kings Men

So it’s a taste of Linkin Park mixed with freaky military art. Currently on display at DJ Joe Hahn’s Melrose store Suru are a couple of artworks by the artist who designed the Linkin Park artwork.

Josh Vanover, better known as Spaceknuckle, presents about five different artworks from his inner psychotic nature at Hahn’s (DJ and sampler for the band Linkin Park) store. Kind of a disappointment really – no, I am not talking about the artworks themselves, but rather the quantity. If you are expecting to see a large-scale exhibition of some trippy pieces radiating with qualities of metal music, then you are in for a huge disappointment.

Being a huge Linkin Park fan, I was jumping up and down with excitement … that is, until I got to the venue. See, I didn’t realize it would be in a store. I walked right past it without realizing that that’s where I had to go in.

Nevertheless, the minimal amount of work that was displayed in the DJ’s store was pretty interesting. Pulling from red, black, green and white palettes, Spaceknuckle illustrates a sort of military style artworks.

Being brutally honest, it wasn’t that special. The only thing that amazed me was how it gave me the chills, as it felt as though the paintings were screaming. Screaming, like those screaming sound effects made in classic horror films.

Sadly, that really is it. There wasn’t much to the so-called exhibit. Taking a look at the works only took about five minutes … and then the clothes and cute colorful teddy bear figures managed to cause a distraction. It would be possible to go on talking about the store and its cool layouts and architecture, but sadly this column focuses on art.

Oh well, at least you can always go visit either for the artwork or for the store – you choose.

Suru is located at 7662 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles. For more information, visit suru-la.com.