Jay Howell

Jay's an illustrator living in SanFran. He likes to draw little men and little dogs and skateboarders and such. His use of color is what really struck me about his work. It's so playful and combines a lot of colors in a way that might not work without such competent hands. His linework and shapes remind me of Warhol's early advertising illustrations.

Check it out here.

Kareem Rizk

Kareem Rizk is an Australian artist who works in all mediums, but seems to really excels in collage. He has been shown at Art Basel as well as other galleries around the world. His collage is inspired by nostalgic images from advertising and old magazine editorials. He's really talented at combining images and colors and textures from a lot of different sources to create really cohesive compositions.

Check it out here.

Mark Khaisman

Mark is a mixed media artist from Russia who now lives in Philadelphia. His favorite element to work with is packing tape and he uses it in amazing ways. He creates haunting portraits of celebrities, silly snapshots and film noir stills. He creates them on a plexiglass backer and lights them from behind. It gives an amazing sense of dimension.

Check it out here.

Saimir Strati

Saimir has set the record for the largest nail mosaic ever. I don't know how many other people have tried to do a giant nail mosaic, but it feels appropriate that the mosaic happens to be a portrait of Leonardo da Vinci.

Check it out here.

Lauren DiCioccio

Lauren DiCioccio is a textile artist who is obsessed with reproducing mundane everyday objects in beautiful fabric or intricately stitched compositions. Her newest series Sewnews uses fabric sleeves over NY Times newspapers and then she sews the photographs onto the sleeve with vibrant thread.

Check it out here.

Kurz and CT

These are 2 Euro graffiti artists who are pushing form and color in graffiti. This is still street art but these 2 are truly graf-rats that are killing it on the street and in warehouses around Europe. Where their burners fit into the graffiti aesthetic, it also stands far outside it with it's precision and careful attention to color theory.

Check it out here.

Jacob Whibley

Jacob Whibley creates collages that have a depth that's rare in a 2D medium. He uses found paper, shapes, colors and rarely uses recognizable imagery. His site is under construction, so check out his Flickr thread.

Check it out here.

MIchael Steele

Michael Steele is an Australian illustrator who is fascinated with typography, cartoons and robots. His canvases combine all in a surprisingly harmonious way. His new work called his Cluster series is an explosion of color line and form. Really beautiful work. Here's the description of the series in his words:
"A Cluster to me resembles images or objects grouped together to form something larger. I feel this gives images or objects a stronger presence, rather than being displayed by themselves, creating a much more dynamic experience for the viewer.I am constantly exploring new avenues within this theme."

Check it out here.

Raymond Pettibon

In case you weren't familiar with the work of the great Raymond Pettibon, I thought I should put a link to his work since I mentioned him in a previous post. He's responsible for many iconic images from the punk and alt generation including album covers for Black Flag and Sonic Youth.

Check it out here.

ZEROPERZERO

ZPZ is a design duo in Seoul South Korea who are reinventing the way we look at subway maps. They take existing diagrams and finesse them in a way to make them friendly, eye catching and fun. It's similar thinking to the way D-Barcode made us revaluate the UPC symbol on our purchases.

Check ZPZ out here.

Vrno

Don't know a whole lot about vrno, but I'm diggin the work. They work in paint using a rough technique reminiscent of Raymond Pettibon. Very cool look and feel if you're looking for album cover artwork.

If anyone finds out about them, post in the comments section.

Check it out here.

D*Face

D*Face is a British street artist who grew in popularity alongside Banksy. I had thought I'd posted about him here a while back, ut couldn't find it so I apologize if this is a repeat.
D*Face takes images of skulls, the Royal family, money and cartoony heads and applies his trademark wings to make the images fly all over the world. Lately he's smoothed out his style a bit, but it still has a rough appeal.

Check it out here.

orticanoodles

Orticanoodles is an Italian street art duo who's taken stencils to the next level. Their detail is unmatched and color combinations along with typography works perfectly together. Some of the work is a bit reminiscent of D*Face with their use of skulls and British royals. They have a ton of work on their site too which is refreshing for most street artists.

Check it out here.

Justin Gignac

Justin also taps the online media world for inspiration. Only he takes it from total strangers doing totally ridiculous stuff on Chatroulette. He does beautiful (crude) charcoal drawings of the funniest and rudest screen captures he can find.

Check them out here.

Matt Held

Matt takes inspiration from his social media network. He paints people's Facebook profile shots. There are some classics in here and maybe, someday, you'll end up here too.

Check them out here.