Weekly top 10 picks by an

Last Flowers by Manoloide 2021.

Illustration for the band Champagne Colored Cars’ record “Tourism”. They were interested in heavy line work and bold colors. This took around 65+ hrs to complete. It’s a fantastical setting but inspiration was drawn from coastal cities such as Lisbon and Rio de Janeiro.

Still-life painting has been a genre that most clearly demonstrates ownership and the purchasing act of humans throughout history. As Roland Barthes claimed still-life painting is a “commodity empire”. The genre of still-life illustrates the glamor of wealth that affluent people of the upper class have earned through colonizing people and regional places. Still life is about what power gives you personally. It is a genre that hilariously tells that innocent story that secures money, and Still Life tells its owner: You are what you have. Still life maps the intersections of economy and power at the top of an equally important. My photography lifts the glamor off the still-life genre and shows the type of decay within an unfair world-order behind the scenes. Our nature and world are decomposing as a result of the problematic relationship that the human race has developed with nature from past to present. I criticize the problematic relationships that humanity has developed with nature through the still-life painting genre. My works are more like a painting than a photograph. The audience who sees my works gets confused as to whether it is a painting or a photograph. This is actually a trap I set for the audience. By using the variegated colors of still life, I imprison their gaze in my work. The audience, who looks at the work a little more carefully, finds something different from what they expected, the hidden truth. As I believe in direct narration, I name these series of photographs ‘decayedness’.

Floral Fusion was born out of the fusion of nature, art, and technology.

The third and final chapter of my Genesis trilogy “RE:group” with sound design by Simon Oscroft

A united human race in the generations following the Great Flood, speaking a single language and migrating eastward, comes to the land of Shinar . There they agree to build a city and a tower tall enough to reach heaven. God, observing their city and tower, confounds their speech so that they can no longer understand each other, and scatters them around the world. This biblical story can also be found in Sumerian culture and resonates with the whole human history. This myth questions so many topics, from the relationships between humans, the social role of language and the power of a community. It also brings up the vanity of humans and the beauty of a unique voice. In many ways, that unique language could be assimilated to art, a form of communication that knows no boundaries. This piece was sculpted in VR, rendered in octane and then painted over in photoshop and procreate. This artwork has been especially created and won’t be used anywhere else. 1/1 png 4000×6000 pixels Every Collector that will bid on this artwork will receive an exclusive fine art print on a museum quality paper 16.5 x 23.4 inch printed with a giclee printer. The fine art prints will be limited to the bidders. First Bidder will receive number 0, and the winning collector will have the number 1.

“The deeper I go into myself the more I realize that I am my own enemy.” ”The Minipeople” is an art series that illustrates my experience with depression. Each image is a message from my subconsciousness trying to show me the way and guiding me through difficult times. These works were a way to communicate with my soul when my mind was trying to keep me occupied with negative thoughts. This one is about the enemy we all have within. That enemy is our mind, conditioned by the rules of our culture and society. The mind constantly telling us who we are, how we should act and what we should do to be percieved as “good” and be accepted by others. It tells us also that everything that doesn’t fit must be hidden, supressed, killed. This is what we do to ourselves. We are the enemy. But we can also be the savior, the one who will give the love to all aspect of our being, dark and bright. The one who will bring the light to every corner of your being so you could be free.

‘Balance’ is a piece from the genesis project ‘The Wild Within’ by Ryan Koopmans and Alice Wexell. This series brings new life into abandoned buildings from a bygone Soviet era. Based on real-world physical spaces, an animated rebirth into a digital realm has been created. During the Soviet Union, the Georgian town of Tskaltubo was a popular health destination famed for its therapeutic water and luxurious sanatoriums. Between the 1940’s to 1980’s thousands of people visited, including Stalin and his high-ranking officials from Moscow. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the buildings were deserted and fell into disrepair. Since the early 90’s, they have been slowly dismantled and stripped of their valuable materials, leaving empty shells of what were once grandiose classical structures. Koopmans visited this region over several years, exploring the ruins and photographing the spaces. Upon returning, in collaboration with Alice Wexell, they digitally introduced vegetation, manipulated the lighting and structure, added sound by Ross K, and animated the scenes with the intention of reviving the empty spaces, essentially bringing life back into the rooms. The results are a surreal collision between the past and future, as well as the physical and digital worlds. Some of the buildings depicted in this project have been demolished in recent months, further emphasizing the theme of time passing in the cycle of growth and decay.

Transience Series is a body of work inspired by my chronic wonder and interest in the universe and science and where they meet my Christian beliefs. The body art was painted by Becca Gilmartin and was referenced from public domain images taken by the NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, the most famous being the ‘Pillars of Creation’ in the Eagle nebula. The series was published in print in Vulture Magazine sold internationally and won a Honorable Mention Award in the International Photography Awards in the Fine Art category.

Show yourself.