Awesome Art

In early 2017, protest artist Banksy opened The Walled Off Hotel, an actual hotel right in front of the infamous West Bank barrier. Now it has a gift shop where you can get miniatures of graffiti on the wall, t-shirts, and a mug with the hotel’s slogan: “The Worst View in the World.”

While shooting pics to promote illustrator Jon Burgerman’s new book It’s Great to Create, photographer Bas Berkhout decided to turn some of the leftovers into a wonderful documentary about the inspiration behind his whimsical, googly-eyed style.

WIRED UK introduces us to artist Patrick Tresset, whose latest exhibition includes a classroom filled with robotic “students” each of which has been equipped with a pen and paper. While the students doodle, three smarter robots at the head of the class draw portraits.

Vintage photos can provide fascinating insights into our past. Vox explores how accurately applying color to these monochrome photos can bring people and places to life. The research and craftsmanship that goes into modifying these these images is striking.

Filmmaker Christopher Helkey introduces us to artist Peter Dahmen, who creates complex and intricate pop-up structures from paper. We loved learning about how he got started, his build process, and watching the movement of each sculpture as it’s opened up.

John Edmark has created a variety of static and kinetic objects, many of which share a common thread – spirals, which he uses because of their potential to go both infinitely small and infinitely large – a reflection of the endless nature of the universe. More here and here.

You’ll need to take 29 minutes out of your busy life to watch the entire video, but you should at least check out the first minute as artist Shaun Hughes shows off one of his most awesome creations, a 1973 Lincoln Penny that he’s re-engraved with a skull and intricate scrollwork.

Artist Tim Bengel shows off the making of the first of his works from his upcoming Monuments exhibition – an incredible large-scale piece which appears out of nothing, after painstakingly dusting a sticky surface with black and white sand grains and gold leaf.

Illustrator Adam SB shows us how the simplest of mediums – plain old H2O – can be used to create art. By dripping precise amounts of water onto a smooth surface, he creates a temporary artwork that’s sure to satisfy any obsessive need for order.

Joto is a modern take on an X/Y plotter that displays pictures, screenshots, notes and more by drawing them on a whiteboard marker, then erasing them when it’s time for a new image. With support from developers, it can integrate with apps like Twitter, Slack and Spotify.

Artist Ayumi Shibata painstakingly cuts intricate, layers of buildings, trees, rocks, and other structures, then layers them together inside of glassware to form incredible miniature cityscapes. Be sure to check out the Shibata’s amazing papercut tower too.

Watch in amazement as a master Japanese chef takes a single daikon radish and works his precision knife skills to carve it into the links of a chain. We wouldn’t try and secure a bike lock with this thing, but we would eat it with a spicy tuna roll and some miso soup.

We won’t let the irritating audio take away from Mitchell F. Chan’s Something Something National Conversation (In 2 Characters or Less), which features one of the most satisfying elements we’ve seen in an art installation – two puffy white clouds colliding endlessly in mid-air.

An incredible replica of a massive airship from Hayao Miyazaki’s Castle in the Sky. It features scads of lights, dozens of moving propellers and oars, and is surrounded by a sky filled with other aircraft in this amazing display at Tokyo Cityview – part of their Studio Ghibli exhibit.

Part of Max Factory’s Table Museum series, the Figma Vitruvian Man translates Leonardo da Vinci’s famous sketch into a three-dimensional and articulated figure. Just like the drawing, the 6″ figure has an extra pair of arms and legs so you can go wild with poses.

Experimental artist Bhautik Joshi used a special deep neural network rendering method to transform scenes from Stanely Kubrick’s classic into a surreal Picasso-esque world. We’d love to see an entire movie illustrated in this style.

Adult coloring books are totally dope, so curl up with some pencils and any kind of mule and bring life to the pages of the Coloring Book of Booze. There are 26 cocktails to color, with recipes included. A great gift for a dinner or housewarming party. (Thanks Mike P!)

Japanese LEGO fanatic Nobu Tary creates amazing sculptures which make the plastic building bricks look good enough to eat. While the burger and bento box look tasty, it’s the slice of everything pizza with gooey LEGO cheese that has us salivating.

Pastry artist Karen Portaleo creates incredibly detailed and artful edible sculptures. Her cakes and chocolate creations range from elegant and beautiful to surreal and creepy. Regardless of the subject matter, they all look way too good to eat.

It’s amazing all the cool things you can do with a simple X/Y motorized rig. Here, Rochester Institute of Technology’s Ted Kinsman shows how to create images using different sized droplets of colored liquid, like coffee, ink, or red wine, which then soak into the paper.

A massive woodcut print that is as much an homage to nature’s beauty as it is a testament to hard work and dedication. Each 46″x 30″ print is made by hand using five 44″x 28″ wooden blocks – one for each color. It took Tugboat Printshop 3 years to carve the blocks.

In tribute to the release of The Force Awakens, pop artist Red Hong Yi created a series of sculptures which look like disjointed, almost random objects, but when illuminated at just the right angle, they cast shadows of iconic images from the Star Wars universe.

Artist Jake Weidmann possesses a truly special craft – he’s the youngest of only a handful Master Penmen in the entire world, with the hard-earned ability to create insanely intricate illustrations and calligraphy from the tip of his fountain pen.