So you’ve won the lotto and are thinking of a new motor, something that stands out so you can show off to your friends (and also make them jealous), well it doesn’t get more bling than this Mercedes Benz s550. Well sorry to disappoint it’s not real, it’s a sculpture by Brooklyn based artist Jordan Griska, aptly named “Wreck” is a life-size Merc made from 12,000 individual polished pieces of mirror-finished stainless steel, and took almost two years to complete.

“Beauty, technology, and engineering collide with death and reality”

Photo courtesy of Jordan Griska.

What has been touted as the world’s longest art gallery is somewhere you wouldn’t expect a metro in Sweden’s national capital Stockholm. It has 100 stations is 110 kilometres long and over 90 art installations by 150 artists which had been created starting in the 1950’s. There you’ll find stations each with different visual feasts decorated with sculptures, mosaics, paintings, installations, engravings with eye-poping colours. Check out some of the amazing art from the gallery here. And you can also purchase prints by photographer Conor MacNeill aka TheFella (above photo). Enjoy!

(Image: ‘Secret Hell’ by Conor Macneill ©)

Greek gods and graffiti, now you don’t usually hear those two words in the same sentence, but that’s what you associate Spanish artists Pichi and Avo aka Pichiavo with. The duo Pichiavo started in 2007 after fleeing from the self-centeredness of graffiti and now ‘adopts a style and focus which is both beautiful and performative, firm in its discussion and totally the perfect deconstruction of classic art and contemporary urban art, in order to create a new fusion, which whilst faithful to its classic heritage, creates a new and exciting vision of art.’. They are doing it throughout the streets of Valencia and wider Spain, with only use spray paint which makes it more impressive as it demonstrates the precision and technique used when presenting the timelessness of Greek mythology in an original way. Check out there graffiti here.

(Image: Pichiavo)

Bay of Fires, Tasmania

Here at TheNews.com.au we take pleasure in promoting Australian artistic talent, and Tasmanian Photographer Joshua Vince fits the bill with his stunning photography. Joshua has released a Calender showcasing his work for 2020 called MMXX. Featuring evocative landscape images of the wilderness, his body of work captures the many moods of unique Tasmanian landscapes. Upon viewing Joshua’s work an instant immersion into the scenery takes place, followed by awe.

Some of his photos see us immersed in mysterious passages of water flowing around massive numinous grey immovable stone landmarks. Stark contrasts of black and white through to delicate ephemeral shades of grey create a mystery of otherness – a beauty in starkness. They evoke feelings of something yet to reach, but not forgotten.

Caves on the Tasman Peninsula

Other photos are taken from a ground perspective, with majestic lichen rich boulders rising as megalithic giants. Foregrounds of burnt umber and raw sienna on a background of shifting grey enhance the depth of the images as majestically mysterious monuments, leading our eyes to exquisitely warm distant backgrounds of sinking sunsets and a distant sunrise that recreate an almost forgotten wonder – a true connection to nature, a oneness almost tantalisingly out of reach.  Beyond the monumental landmarks Josh creates an ephemeral and hauntingly beautiful daydream that calls to us.  Fresh and visionary, Joshua Vince sculpts with the camera in his unique showcase of the Tasmanian wilderness.

Eddystone Point Lighthouse, Tasmania

Joshua’s Calender is available for purchase for $35 (+$9 P&H) that’s if there’s any left. They can be purchased from his Facebook page. Also check him out on Instagram. *Update – Calendars have sold out!

All images copyright © Joshua Vince Photography

Melissa Lockley, Arts Correspondant TheNews.com.au

melissa.lockley@thenews.com.au

In collaboration with illustrator Julian Rentzsch, Stellavie has released an amazing collection of director portrait prints of some of your favourite directors. Measuring 40cm x 50cm they’re not your average portraits, they combine elements of the most famous films on acid-free, alkaline-buffered cotton paper (190gsm)and are printed with archival museum quality pigment inks. Featuring Alfred Hitchcock, , David Lynch, Quentin Tarantino, Tim Burton, Stanley Kubrick, Christopher Nolan, Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Wes Anderson, Paul Thomas Anderson and David Fincher , these are a must for any movie buff. So you’d better be quick they’re limited to 200 per edition, buy here $147 AUD.

“I steal from every movie ever made”…Quentin Tarantino

Images: Stellavie

Here at TheNews.com.au we have been eagerly awaiting the Alexander McQueen documentary, McQueen, and the wait is finally over and it doesn’t disappoint. This brilliant film by film-makers Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui delves into the life of extraordinaire British avant-garde fashion designer Alexander McQueen. Born Lee Alexander McQueen (who was advised to change his name as it would look more upmarket for his brand), this excellent film follows the life of the late couture designer from growing up in London’s underprivileged Stratford region, to the dizzy heights of chief designer at Fashion power house Givenchy, British Designer of the Year four times and designer to many famous clientele such as Kate Moss, to when he took his own life at the age of 40 in 2010. This story leaves no stone unturned from the absolute highs to incredible lows. We think Harper’s Bizaar sums it up best,

“Among the most accurate, sensitive, and moving. Using his collections as cornerstones, the documentary features candid interviews with colleagues, friends and even family of McQueen, who was known as Lee to the people he loved.”

If you see one documentary this year, McQueen is unmissable!

Here are some interesting facts: McQueen was a huge dog lover and left his dogs £50,000 in his will, he had a Bull Terrier called Juice. Kate Middleton wore a Alexander McQueen dress at her royal wedding. His muse Annabelle Neilson died this year at the age of 49 from a heart attack.

Gucci raises the bar yet again with their new advervtising campaign for its Hallucination Spring Summer 2018 collection or SS18. Using a film, the hashtag #guccihallucination, and the amazing digital artwork by London based Spanish artist Ignasi Monreal. Monreal captures the eclectic vision that Gucci embodies as can be seen in his above image of the Snow White story reenacted with the princess animated jumper. He also features in the campaigns film, portraying the curator of the Gucci Gallery which explores the relationship between art and fashion, and states:

“Sometimes a painting is as much about what it doesn’t show you as what it does”

In this very exclusive collection there will be only 200 of each t-shirt design and a 100 of the sweatshirt design, each individually numbered. Also Gucci has made Monreal’s artwork interactive for customers at selected stores around the world where it will be on display as sticker artwork, so you’ll be able to connect to a microsite through the Gucci app and allow a 360-degree panoramas of his work, and just to making it even cooler there will be chairs and mannequins in the store windows admiring his work as they would in a gallery or cinema. Gucci has put the G in Genius once again.

(Image: Copyright Gucci, Ignasi Monreal, ©. Campaign by Simmonds Ltd, London)

For anyone that saw Blade Runner 2049 last year would have been blown away by the awe-inspiring cityscapes, and maybe thought oh well CGI again but no, a lot of this amazing scenery were miniatures or you could say ‘bigatures’. Created by Kiwi special effects company Weta Workshop, (co-founded by Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson). Some of the buildings would take at least a week to make, properly designing, painting and weathering them by hand, some being nearly 5 metres high. Watch the video here of the amazing process and more amazing photo’s here of these pieces of what should be called art not sets.

(Image: Weta Workshop)

No it’s not a prop from a new instalment of a Tom Cruise classic, this beautiful sculpture (Olympia Beige, above 10″ x 29″1/2 x 4″) is by part of an exhibition Canadian artist Éric Nado who turns typewriters into non-functional guns. His catalyst for creating this unusual combination is from when he was young he used to play with typewriters and the sound of the keys reminded him of sound of guns going off. “Since Gutenberg, traces of history have been found in pages and bookshelves for readers. In some way, the Typewriter Guns link words and arms together, evoking that words are stronger than guns and tie the history of press with the history of war.” he told Vice Creators. Unfortunately they have sold out but you can view all of these beautiful pieces art filled with nostalgia, the objects he transforms into sculptures tell compelling stories of art here.  They are being showcased in Montreal at the C.O.A. Gallery, and in California, at the Laguna Gallery of Contemporary Arts

(Source: Creators, Vice. Image Supplied: Eric Nado. Olympia Beige)

Amazing, yet eerie photos by Antwerp-based photographer Jans Kempenaers of 25 abandoned monuments from the former Yugoslavia made in the 1960’s and 70’s, to commemorate sites where WWII battles took place. Just as Cracktwo says “they look like they’re from the future.” and also poses the question “Can these former monuments continue to exist as pure sculptures? On one hand, their physical dilapidated condition and institutional neglect reflect a more general social historical fracturing. And on the other hand, they are still of stunning beauty without any symbolic significances.”, you decide, either way the monuments look stunning, “The Spomenik Collection”.