Respect Authority

Ronald Kurniawan may have just become my new favorite artist. Of course, in two weeks he’ll have to fight to the death before a savage, jeering crowd for his right to hold his title against whatever fit of fancy crosses my path next, but for now, he can paint comfortably and continue taking massive doses of LSD on the weekends or whatever it is that drives his delightful blend of genius and insanity.

Kurniawan’s style is uniquely beautiful; something about it seems utterly alien, but most of his paintings still maintain a very welcoming atmosphere. His work is incredibly psychedelic without being overwhelming or falling into the common problem of being deemed suitable only for fuzzy velvet blacklight posters relegated to the dusty back corners of random suburban head shops. Read More ›

If it’s been a while since you’ve accidentally taken a huge, “thousands of scary orange liquid monsters dancing under a strobe light in my living room” dose of acid, consider checking out the incredible paper collages by Norwegian paper fetishist Are Mokkelbost. There’s something distinctly psychedelic about his freakish imagery — freakish both in its astounding attention to detail and overall overwhelming presence along with the dark, tense compositions and themes. When people start seeing shit like this, it’s about 10 seconds after they start whimpering to their friends, “Um, hey guys… I don’t think I like this anymore…”

It was something of a challenge to choose examples to share for this entry, they’re all stunningly jaw-dropping to the point of me becoming absurdly redundant in my adjective choice. Suffice to say, this guy must have some fucked up nightmares. Read More ›