Top 10 Dec 18

Welcome to the last Top 10 list of 2009, but don't panic, I will be back in 2010.
I'm going back home to the remote parts of Sweden for the holidays, where my family is a firm believer in the non-internet generation. A place where men still shapes their fists like little arrows to kill any type of animal for their lunch rather then quickly ordering it online.

But before i go check out this weeks Top 10.
And if your still hungry for more internet jems, check out Pitchforks
top 50 albums of 2009.

Check out Pitchfork 50-1 list HERE

Enjoy the Holidays!

Mr.J

1. Kate Macdowell

Statement
We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words--to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it. – C.S. Lewis.

In my work this romantic ideal of union with the natural world conflicts with our contemporary impact on the environment. These pieces are in part responses to environmental stressors including climate change, toxic pollution, and gm crops. They also borrow from myth, art history, figures of speech and other cultural touchstones. In some pieces aspects of the human figure stand-in for ourselves and act out sometimes harrowing, sometimes humorous transformations which illustrate our current relationship with the natural world. In others, animals take on anthropomorphic qualities when they are given safety equipment to attempt to protect them from man-made environmental threats. In each case the union between man and nature is shown to be one of friction and discomfort with the disturbing implication that we too are vulnerable to being victimized by our destructive practices.

I hand sculpt each piece out of porcelain, often building a solid form and then hollowing it out. Smaller forms are built petal by petal, branch by branch and allow me the chance to get immersed in close study of the structure of a blossom or a bee. I chose porcelain for its luminous and ghostly qualities as well as its strength and ability to show fine texture. It highlights both the impermanence and fragility of natural forms in a dying ecosystem, while paradoxically, being a material that can last for thousands of years and is historically associated with high status and value. I see each piece as a captured and preserved specimen, a painstaking record of endangered natural forms and a commentary on our own culpability.

See Kate's portfolio HERE

2. Platonov Pavel

The photographer known on flickr as platonov pavel has created a series of images which showcase his talent as a photographer and designer. The series depicts models adorned with unique creations which are sculpted around their heads, obscuring their facial features. These mask-like creations range from folded paper to large-scale constructions made using small pieces of wood. Each one is a different material and arranged in such a way, as to complement the portrait.

See more of Platonov's Flickr account HERE

3. United Fakes - Joyeux Noël

Check out more work by United Fakes HERE

4. Betsy Van langen

Betsy Van langen's body of work is visually stunning, and constantly refreshing with transitions from dark and arresting, to loud, bright and colorful images. Betsy is fascinated with the body, and while a large amount of her work is self portraiture, she is constantly exploring new tactics to express herself as a contemporary artist. Betsy is currently working towards her masters degree at Rutgers University, where she continues to develop her experimental style of photography.

See more work by Betsy HERE

5. Connie Imboden

See more of Connie's work HERE

6. Dan Bergeron

For the better part of the decade, Dan Bergeron, aka Fauxreel, has been creating subversive, photo-based street works. Often his projects address current social and political themes, while others simply attempt to re-contextualize the physical spaces he liberates. By primarily working outdoors, Bergeron's image challenge the city's predominant visual culture of advertising, not only in presence, location and scale, but in their efforts, "to document people that are rarely focused on in mass media."

See more work By Dan HERE

7. NuFormer Projection on Buildings

Impressive and stylish projections on buildings, a renewing way of communicating.For those who want to carry out a message in a striking and visually attractive way with guaranteed exposure: 3D Projection on buildings is the communication tool of 2009, and what an impact!

NuFormer Digital Media develops high-skill 3D video mapping projections. These 3D projections will be custom-made to fit any specific building and will be exposed by a battery of powerful projectors.

8. Brandon Voges

See Brandon's portfolio HERE

9. Google Chrome Features

10. Winkler+Noah THE WITNESS / Fall of the Berlin Wall Anniversary 1989-2009.

The Work:
Growing up on the wrong side of the wall might mean becoming blind. Everything that is behind it seems muffled and invisible. The reality is just a surrogate offered by the authorities, and it marks the passing by days till they become years. This is why we have chosen to portray symbolically 20 blind young people in their twenties, photographed in a tight close up of their faces, where the eyes are as if covered up by a white patina that makes impossible the vision of the world.

BIO
The Search of Hyper-Reality.

For Winkler+Noah, photography was the most fitting point of arrival for an artistic itinerary that they began instinctively from childhood, exploring all the forms of expression that they encountered — painting, drawing and sculpture — amalgamating them and trying out blends between different media.

This creative need for self-expression matured over the years, first becoming curiosity and then a strong will to create and to photograph. After a professional detour as an illustrator and graphic designer, Noah met Winkler and this acted as a detonator, producing a mixture fusing traditional photography with experimentation.

What their pictures reveal is a sensation of hyper-reality: the protagonists of their portraits appear in a real context, but they stand out from it as if highlighted by reality itself. They are stark, intense photos because each single picture encloses an idea and conveys powerful emotions to the observer. The artists deal personally with post-production so that the creative process joins up with itself like a circle.

They have received recognition all over the world and their works are been exhibited in New York, London and Milan.

See more from Winkler+Noah HERE