Visual Art – Page 20

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Irina Ionesco

Irina Ionesco is a French-Romanian photographer who began exhibiting her work in the mid-1970s. Her photography is dark, dramatic, erotic, and strongly evocative of a vintage aesthetic, with lots of influence from the 1920s, reflecting the lavishly ornamental tendencies of that period, feathers, furs, headdresses, and all, with its vampish, sexy yet macabre vibe.

Irina’s images of her daughter, Eva Ionesco, were very controversial, as you can probably imagine. In these, the prepubescent Eva is displayed in an array of nude, erotic, and bondage-inspired poses, with an intense gaze, a seeming precocious knack for modeling, and a weird, Lolita-esque allure. I find these photos to be some of Ionesco’s most interesting work, however.

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Nicoletta Ceccoli’s “Incubi Celesti”

These hauntingly beautiful, ethereal portraits of Alice in Wonderland-like figures clad in blue are from Nicoletti Ceccoli’s new series, fittingly titled Incubi Celesti (“Heavenly Nightmares”). This collection is currently displaying at the Dorothy Circus Gallery in Rome, Italy, until December 23rd.

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Chris Berens – “Leeuwenhart”

Chris Berens’ Leeuwenhart show is currently exhibiting at the Roq La Rue Gallery in Seattle. These precious, glowing, softly translucent works have a surreal fairytale-land feel, and a unique look which comes from Berens’ singular method of using inks (as well as bistre, graphite, and parquet lacquer) on inkjet photo paper, and piecing the works together in a patchwork fashion in 1-3-inch pieces; some patches are suffused with a haze, while others are sharp to the point of photorealism. The overall effect has a lot of depth, layering, softness, and wonderfully dreamlike, gently bizarre qualities.

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Hypnotic Abstraction: The Art of Sougwen Chung

Sougwen Chung is a Brooklyn-based designer and illustrator whose abstract drawings are utterly bewitching and entrancing. Incredibly detailed and intricate, these writhing masses, coiling infinitely upon themselves, have a sense of palpable kinetic energy, and, though the shapes are abstract, also a sense of being organic.