Toby Tam

Madeleine / detail
water color, 55cm*55cm

http://www.tobytam.com/

1987 born in Hunan of China, presently living in Shanghai. Toby Tam is a chinese artist and editor of the online magazine CERTAIN. Find him also on Flickr / Myspace / Facebook.

via Rui Tenreiro's blog.

Wim Bosch

http://www.wimbosch.nl/

—Wim Bosch composes his pictures digitally from various photographs of his own and other illustrations; from home decorating magazines or from the Internet. 
As in painting, the empty, white surface forms the point of departure for the illusion of a reality reproduced in photography consisting primarily of independent pictorial elements. 
Though the individual components come together in a coherent order, 
the various perspectives, effects of light and shadow and the colour accentuations create an atmosphere of unreality and artificiality closely approaching photorealistic effects. A few details - a missing shadow, breaks in perspective or spatial relations that are not completely logical – reveal the constructed nature of the pictorial context which is nonetheless sealed off and held together by a homogeneous surface as an “outer skin”.

—The impression is that an extraordinary event has just taken place here. As at the scene of a crime, 
something that has happened seems to be concentrated here, and the viewer attempts to investigate, but without being able to find enough clues about it. The point is therefore not so much to link the pictorial worlds to an external reality as to discover relationships and contradictions within the picture.
—Dr. Christoph Kivelitz - October 2005 MKgalerie

Wim Bosch lives and works in Groningen, The Netherlands.

Nina Saunders

1. Never, 1999
2. Sincerely yours, 2007
3. Pure thought, 1996
4. Delicate landscape, 2009

http://www.ninasaunders.eu/

—The cushion bulges have a transformational function, since they can alienate otherwise familiar objects. My work moves between the field of beauty / ugliness, comfort / exclusion, home equity / alienation.
—Chairs are designed to support the human body and thus we identify with them. And as furniture supports specific environments and convey messages about the user's status, ambition and even the sex, age and employment. They have an enormous expressive potential.
—Humor is so important. Ironically, I have had my best laugh in a hospital just before an operation.
—Interviewed in danish by Matilde Digmann.

Born in 1958 in Odense, Denmark, Nina Saunders was trained in Central St Martin's and has since 1975 lived and worked in London. She works with "mutated furniture that has been deprived of their original function, rooms that with her radical intervention are allocated social or ideological statements".

via wrongdistance.
Some images retouched by thescienceofdesign.

Kimiaki Yaegashi

http://www.okimi.com/

Kimiaki Yaegashi, aka Okimi, studied art at the University of Iwate. He works as a graphic designer and illustrator in Tokyo. Find more of his work at http://dailyvitamins.jp/, and follow him on Twitter / Flickr

Ikenaga Yasunari

1. 2007 #35 2. 2007 #28
3. 2009 #48 4. 2009 #52
5. 2009 #56 6. 2010 #57

http://www4.point.ne.jp/ikenaga/

—"The women he paints are fascinating and stoic. He creates his art by applying japanese paint into a linen canvas with a Menso brush. But, why does he paint Nihonga on the canvas? I have asked him before, but he didn't know neither. He is a very friendly guy but very quiet, though."—Japanese arts.
—Ikenaga Yasunari is a japanese painter born in 1965.

Farhad Moshiri

1. Armchair and Round Table with Stereos, 2003
2. King Bed with Stereo Pillows, 2003
3. Ashegh Shodam, 2007

http://www.kashyahildebrand.org

—There’s always been an element in my work that’s self-ridiculing. I play with the idea of marketing and commodification, and this feeds my practice. After all, the idea of making work that is about the packaging of art has been there since pop art.
—I find myself focusing more on the art making process rather than whether people understand the work or not. If the response is emotional and immediate, then that’s OK; this can be more powerful.
—My work now is not that obviously critical. I’m using the idea of “happiness” which gives more space for corniness or sarcasm, but sorrow is just sorrow and there’s not a lot you can do with it. —Galerie Perrotin.

Farhad Moshiri was born in Shiraz, Iran, and studied fine arts at CalArts in California. In America he first started experimenting with installations, video art and painting before coming back to Tehran in 1991. He is well known for his ironic interpretations of hybrids between traditional Iranian forms and those of the consumerist and globalized popular culture widespread in his country. Significant works include "General Understanding", "A Dream in Tehran", "Brain", "Silver Portrait on Red" and "Stereo Surround Sofa".—source.

https://www.artsy.net/artist/farhad-moshiri

Hugues Reip

1-2. Parallel Worlds, 2008
3. Eden, 2007

—In his works, Hugues Reip reflects upon how the perception of ordinary, uneventful environments changes when it is temporally fragmented, sped up, slowed down, enlarged or inverted from moment to moment.
—In 'Eden', he presented an installation of flowers from southern France, which he had enlarged, printed and mounted on individual wooden structures which stood by themselves. Additionally, he also integrates sound into visual art to work with the aspect of abstract poetry or narrative in music. —Source.
—Hugues Reip (1964) was born in Cannes, France and now lives in Paris.

Masha Krasnova-Shabaeva

1-2. Flowerbeds, 2008
3. Family 2, 2009
4. For Bolshoi-Gorod Magazine, 2008
5. Untitled, 2007

http://mashushka.ru

—The works of Masha Krasnova-Shabaeva, a Moscow-based illustrator and fine artist, are mostly pencil on paper, watercolour, acrylic on canvas, digital prints and installations.
—Often concerned with ideas surrounding gender, her 'Crying Girls' and 'Patterned Portraits' are highlights of her extensive portfolio. Her use of bright, cheery colours and patterns are often out of context and instead of lightening an image, sometimes make them eerie and confusing.—Source.

Follow her latest projects also on her Flickr / Behance.

Karina Petersen

Fart / Speed. Typography. Feb 2010.

http://www.karinapetersen.com/

Here is a little information about the Fart-project provided by Karina on my request:

—The project started with a friend of mine asking me, if I would design two spreads for an online-publication he was planning. Each artist got a word to work with/illustrate. I got the word FART which, additionally to its English meaning, has a second one in Danish: speed. This was my starting point, and from this theme I worked quite freely with shape, colours and texture.

—I see my work as two sided, I have a daytime job as a graphic designer, and I work with a very minimalistic graphic approach, but at the same time I do love to experiment. There is a giving interaction between the two; in the way they supplement each other. I see in my work, both a very strict minimalistic path, but also a much more artistic approach.

Karina Petersen, born in 1982 in Denmark, has recently graduated with a MA in graphic design from the Designskolen Kolding (2009). Her work has been published in ComputerArts Projects, Typeplayer, Playfull type, and in ROJO magazine.

via Behance

Brigitte Niedermair

—Her work questions the feminine condition. Examining traditions, religions and modernity, and applying this to such subjects as abortion and artificial insemination, she proposes a dual vision between the sacred and the profane, asceticism and eroticism, cutural heritage and emancipation.

—Born in southern Tyrol in 1971, she lives and works in Milano and Paris. Before dedicating herself to photography at the age of 20, she created through painting and drawing. A self taught artist, Brigitte Niedermair has been working principally in fashion since 2000, composing her photographs as if they were paintings.

http://www.quadriga.fr/

Yang Na

1. Beautiful illusion in the mirror, 2009.
2. Stealing fish. Available at Cyanna.

—Nana’s incredible face is a prominent feature of Yang Na’s artwork. She uses the nose of her pet dog, a pair of wandering, intoxicating and enchanting eyes, an enticing amorous mouth and the trendiest makeup, to demonstrate the beauty of youth that is rife with contradiction..and morbidity. Often surrounded by wriggling objects in the shape of sperm, “Nana” appears to be childish and helpless.
—In the company of glittering jewels, Nana is no stranger to vanity. This young, innocent and pretentious face attracts many viewers to fall in love with the virtual iconic youth..and to yearn for the delight of her presence.
—The fairy tale of “Nana” has in a short time led to Yang Na’s own saga. The quiet Yang Na has a fervent desire to produce works of art, which ordinary beauties can by no means match.
—“Supple Tension” by Victoria Lu, Curator, MOCA Shanghai

A graduate of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Yang Na was born in Chongqing, China in 1982. She has most recently exhibited at Metaphysical Art Gallery, Taipei, and Art Seasons Gallery in Zurich. Her work has been exhibited in Chongqing Jiang Shan Art Museum, Taipei Museum of Contemporary Art, MOCA Shanghai, Moon River MOCA Beijing, and ChengDu Art Museum.

via cyanaa, a212

Clemens Jahn

http://clemensjahn.de/
via butdoesitfloat.

Scholten Baijings

1. Truly Dutch tables, 2009.
2. Vegetables. 2009.
3. Typically dutch collection, 2009.
4-5. Amsterdam Armoir from the "Truly Dutch" collection, with photography by Scheltens & Abbenes.
6. Light ball, 2006.

http://www.scholtenbaijings.com/

Minimalist design and use of colour, layers, transparency, grids, structures, textures, and patterns. Conversations pieces for the interior: The typically dutch collection comprises five items of furniture that are a contemporary interpretation of five masterpieces from the Zuiderzee museum's collection: Marker kast (marken cabinet), Hangoortafel (drop-leaf table), Flap-aan-de-wand (tilt-top table), Butte (wooden travel case) and Knopstoel (pegged chair). Scholten Baijings is Stefan Scholten and Carole Baijings, a design duo that has been working together since 2000.

Some images retouched by thescienceofdesign.

Masha Karpushina

http://mashakarpushina.blogspot.com/
http://www.mashakarpushina.com/

—"Storytelling is a great inspiration: novels vibrant with energy and spirit, people whose eyes tell of their past, lyrics whose tongues unveil the long paths of days gone by."— Masha Karpushina was born in in 1982 in Moscow, Russia; and is currently living in London.

via Behance,

Benedetta Mori Ubaldini

http://www.benedetta.info/

—'The pieces i do in chicken-wire come from a childlike side of my imagination, what i love is creating installations as three dimensional pictures, the simplicity of this material contains the magical power of transparency that is capable of giving each peace the lightness of an apparition, a ghost like quality, like a trace from memory.'

Images retouched by thescienceofdesign.