Pop Surrealist David Stoupakis who is featured in Gestalten’s recent release The Upset: Young Contemporary Art has a talent for transforming the supernatural and macabre into dramatic narratives. A delicate balance of childhood innocence and haunting imagery, this series of oil-on-panel paintings and graphite drawings recounts grim fairytales of the decadent and demure.

Marking a new direction for the artist, Stoupakis employs a brighter color palette than before and will unveil his largest piece to date for the exhibition. The reception for These Predicaments takes place on Saturday, December 13, and the evening will include music scored by composer Geoff Gersh. Open to the public, the exhibition will be on view until December 31, 2008.

ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Born in Brighton, Massachusetts in 1974, David Stoupakis was diagnosed with a learning disability and encouraged to develop his artistic side as a child. The subject of many teacher-parent meetings, his “gloomy” drawings would later become his signature style of painting. Stoupakis’ images have appeared as cover art for the bands Korn and Haloburn and have been featured in numerous publications including Juxtapoz, Hi-Fructose and Devolution as well as books such as Gothic Art Now and The Upset. Galleries throughout the world have featured his work, including Strychnin Gallery in Berlin, Dorothy Circus Gallery in Rome, and StolenSpace Gallery in London. Stoupakis currently lives and works in Queens, New York with his girlfriend and muse Aprella. For more information about the artist, please visit: www.davidstoupakis.com.

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Viewfinder, 2006 - 20 x 24 inches chromogenic Print

American photographer Thomas Allen constructs witty and clever dioramas using figures cut from the covers of old pulp paperbacks. Using salacious pulp art drawing’s of the ’40s and ’50s that covered books such as ” I Married a Dead Man” and ” Marihuana Girl’, Allen constructs one set of pictures up close while obscuring another, and in the process creates a different context. Each piece is given a brand new storyline, though never quite strays from their cheeky origins. See more…

KISS CONSULTATION - oil on canvas 36in x 48in

If your a fan of Ron English’s work, you will be pleased to know his latest work is on show now at the Shooting Gallery SF. Ron is the master of “popaganda”, known for his satirical interpretations of commercial iconography. For his latest show “The Secret History of Kiss”, Ron creates Bouguereau styled paintings with traditional regal and religious subject matter that have Kiss themes to them all. It really doesn’t matter if your a fan of kiss or not, as each one of the oil paintings on show is a masterpiece. The colors, presentation and the way he handles paint is not only inspiring but awe inducing. See more…

“I do all for My Lord Marquis of Carabas” - 1620 × 1303mm, oil painting, 2008

Japanese artist Yuma Touko features surreal, fun, bright, raucous, playful imagery that transcends category. Touko paints a wickedly humorous melange of fairytales and pop culture to tell unsettling tales about the beauty and pain of childhood. With his divine gift for color and composition, Touko draws attention to vast amounts of iconography and bizzare pop imagery used as a metaphor, which makes the viewing experience all the richer and more compelling.

“L’apres-Midi D’un Faune” - 530 × 455mm, oil painting, 2008

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Zoe Lacchei, an excellent Italian artist who has published several works and performed many exhibitions. Her unmistakable fusion of traditional styles is particularly evident in the paintings she created for the Geisha Project. This series consists of an eclectic mix of beautiful and slightly dark artworks, adorned as the subjects are with spirit animals and bones. See more from this series after the jump…… more…

Profound visions of poverty through paintings

Don’t Shed No Tears - 24″x36″, Acrylics on Canvas © 2004-2008

Today is Blog Action Day - a day where thousands of bloggers around the world commit to write on the one topic in the hope of creating awareness around that issue. The topic this year is Poverty, and what better way to shed alittle ALOT of light on this terrible human condition than through the provocative ‘hyperealistic’ paintings of Denis Peterson. Being acknowledged as the pioneer and primary architect of hyperrealism which was founded upon the aesthetic principles of Photorealism. Denis was one of the first photorealist painters to emerge in New York, creating realistic scenes and portraitures rendered in meticulous detail. Many of his paintings depict homeless and African people in scenes that confront the human condition. “By making something beautiful and hyperreal in appearance, I think he attempts to remind us that people suffering terribly are living, breathing, thinking, and feeling individuals in need of our attention and help (Chris Ashley, Look See).”

Visually disturbing subjects of this iconoclastic artist have been statuesque figures and stoic faces painted in an eerily and deafening hyper-reality. His subjects are universally depicted with an internalized calm in the face of the surrounding horrors of deadly disease, impending torture, terrorizing fear, irrational hatred and saddening poverty.

There’s not much more to say that the paintings don’t say themselves. They are extraordinary paintings from an extraordinary artist. Follow the jump to see more…