Andre Serrano

Photographer Andre Serrano is no stranger to the gritty and controversial. In his latest series titled "Residents of New York", Serrano turns his lens onto the less than glamorous side of the city famously known for its bright and colorful larger than life ad posters, onto New Yorkers that aren't part of the glitz: the homeless. It is difficult to look away from these images. This is a subject that truly challenges and pushes the more privilege New Yorkers to stop and be aware of the ongoing homelessness existing in the city they live, work, and play in. 

Serrano cleverly exhibits the series of large portraits along the West 4th Street subway tunnel, so that rushing commuters will be force to acknowledge the uncomfortable truth: poverty is alive and well, even if they pretend not to recognize it. 

Pages Come To Life

I have always loved reading. It's always nice to curl up and get lost in a good book. I LOVE the smell of books. So, I was VERY excited when I discovered these...

Malena Valcarcel is an artist based in Spain, who turns recycled paper and books into something magical. To turn a simple medium such as paper into a whimsical piece of art has always amazed me. It's as if Valcarcel wove a spell over these books to create a miniature world that seems to have been birthed from the imagination of a child. Visit Malena Valcarcel's shop on etsy to purchase her work! 

Sci-fi Fantasy Art by Alexandra Khitrova

It was very difficult for me not to show all art works by Russian artist Alexandra Khitrova's works. A marriage of sci-fi, fantasy, and myth come to vibrant life through the amazing creativity of Khitrova. I absolutely love the swirling tumultuous cloud fused with a dragon and the sensual mermaids. How about a stroll through a forest of tall eerie glowing mushrooms? Just look at all of her captivating conceptual illustrations!

Looking at her art work evokes a feeling I always get when ever I read; a longing to be part of a world that is sadly not tangible. If you want to see more of Alexandra Khitrova's gorgeous art work, visit here!

Zaria Forman

Aren't these just breathtaking? The mind blowing thing about Zaria Forman's work is that she paints with her FINGERS. Her steady hands paint precise and highly detailed works of the raw beauty of the environment, by transforming a child's school time activity, such as finger painting, to a whole new level. Forman's paintings are inspired by her childhood trips with her mother, a fine art photographer, to remote locations around the world.

Ten of Forman's works were used for the set design of Netflix's original series, House of Cards, starring Kevin Spacey.

I truly admire Zaria Forman's underlying message in her paintings: The importance of preserving our environment. To see more of Zaria Forman's work, visit here!

Edible Pollock

Now you can take a bite out of a Jackson Pollock...Well, not the actual painting, but chocolate bars inspired by the American abstract painter. Master chocolatier Jorge Llanderal collaborated with Mexican boutique Unelefante, to create these artsy decadent chocolate bars, by using the action painting technique, Pollock was so famous for. You can pick up your own Pollock inspired chocolate art here!

Also, if you're in Los Angeles, don't forget to go visit The Getty Center to see Jackson Pollock's "Mural". The painting will be there till June 1, 2014, located at the West Pavilion on the Plaza Level. I'll be seeing it Friday, so definitely check back here to read on my personal thoughts of "Mural"!

Second Canvas

Living in an age of great technology has its perks. The Museo del Prado in Spain has developed an app,  Second Canvas, that allows users to immerse themselves in 14 of the gallery's art pieces, including Goya, Valequez, Rembrandt, and many others. What's awesome about this app is that not only does it let you zoom in extremely close to see the brushstrokes and the cracks caused by time, which is not visible to the naked eye, but it also lets the user explore LAYERS of the painting. Beneath the finished result, we get to see an X-ray version of the painting, which makes viewing the painting an intimate experience. This is pretty revolutionary, since the opportunity to see paintings in such a vulnerable state is only available to those who work at the gallery. 

I'm very excited for this app because I find a thrill in being able to study paintings in its sheer nakedness, stripped of its polished perfection, that most art lovers and visitors are accustomed to. To be able to see the imperfections, corrections, and small alterations to the painting, is both poetic and educational. 

Users can access the app while strolling through the gallery. For those of us that can't visit the Museo del Prado in person to see the sheer beauty of the 14 paintings, can use this app from home, on the iphone and ipad! Second Canvas is now available for download through the app store. For more details  and tour of the product, please visit here.

Samantha Keely Smith

Moody, haunting, and ethereal; Those are the words that come to my mind when I look at Samantha Keely Smith's paintings. An England born, New York-based abstract painter, Smith captures the array of human emotions onto canvas with oil. The paintings touches upon the meshing of the human psyche and the outer world. One can almost hear the crashing of waves and feel the spray of the ocean through the feathery sweeping gestural lines. Smith's paintings pulsates with light and hope beneath the untamable force of nature.

Personally, I love abstract paintings. I enjoy the freedom abstract paintings provide for the artist and the viewer. Smith's beautiful paintings making one question things that frightens us and fascinates us all at once.