Welcome to Visual Hierarchy, an online visual playground. Gathered here are pictures I make. Visual Hierarchy is a laboratory. Research is done in a wide variety of mediums.

Flora/Fauna – Art by Kako Ueda and Roxanne Jackson at UWM Union Art Gallery

Posted: February 13th, 2010 | Author: Sean | Filed under: Artists | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | No Comments »

The gallery I work at (UAG) has a pretty badass show going on currently called Flora/Fauna.  If any of you are in the Milwaukee area or are passing through, definitely check it out.  I did a post on Roxanne Jackson awhile back, some of the work in that post is worth looking at. Here is what we have in the show:

Roxanne Jackson:

Eat Your Heart Out

Becoming and Solid Gold

Untitled

Rorschach hide

Eat Your Heart Out

Stigma

White Diamond

Lyuba

Pachyderm

Forgotten

Golden

At the artist talk before the opening of the show Roxanne discussed the ideas surrounding her work.  Transformation from man into creature or beast is a recurring theme as well as animal hybrids.  I agree with Roxanne in that such a transformation is a fantasy, that we are already beasts, yet we often fear our animal nature in desperate attempt to feel superior.  I don’t care so much for her works with wigs, but her ceramic heads and animals are fantastic.  They draw on goth and horror aesthetics.  Being a metal head I find much of her work exceedingly, specifically the black heads with jaws pushing out of the human mouth.

Kako Ueda:

Eros & Thanatos

Eros & Thanatos


Totem

Totem

Totem

Totem

Totem

Totem

Totem

Totem

Totem

Totem

Inside Out

Dreaming of Foetus

Antennae


Gaze

Kako’s usage of paper started in a happenstance sort of way.  She’s always been using paper as a drawer, but many years ago she just sort of started cutting it one night.  What ensued was a series of beautifully crafted and composed artworks.  A large theme in her work is life and death.  Life needs death and death life.  To depict this she uses imagery of plants, insects, eggs, a skull, and faces.  In her work “Totem” (the red paper cut outs above) are a string of narratives composing her own totem pole of sorts.  Clown imagery is drawn from her mother’s interest and collection of clown dolls.  The other narratives are privately inspired and we can only conclude them in our imagination.

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UWM Union Art Gallery: Flora/Fauna Opens this Friday!

Posted: January 25th, 2010 | Author: Sean | Filed under: Artists, Upcoming | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | No Comments »

The University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee Union Art Gallery is starting the semester right with an intense, brutal, and beautiful exhibit with artists Kako Ueda and Roxanne Jackson.  Details Below:

Flora/Fauna

Work by Kako Ueda and Roxanne Jackson

January 29-February 26, 2010

Opening reception: Friday, January 29, 5-8pm

Gallery talk with artists: 4pm

Kako Ueda and Roxanne Jackson focus on physical nature and human nature in abstract and inventive ways.  They share an interest in dualities, such as nature and culture, light and dark. In their work, the natural world is intricate, fascinating, grotesque, frightening – something to be drawn deeply into and sometimes shocked by.

New York artist Kako Ueda constructs her work from intricate hand-cut paper which references, in part, paper cutting from Japan where she was born. Minneapolis-based Roxanne Jackson works three-dimensionally with clay to form large compositions of human/animal hybrids.

UWM Union Art Gallery

2200 E. Kenwood Blvd., Campus level

www.unionartgallery.uwm.edu

414-229-6310

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Ernest Concepcion – Badass. Brutal. Creative.

Posted: November 21st, 2009 | Author: Sean | Filed under: Artists | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | No Comments »

Ernest Concepcion is a BBC artist, that is an artist whose work is Badass, Brutal, and Creative.  His drawings are filled with so much content that one can get lost in them even from a computer screen.  I would absolutely love to see his work live to truly appreciate his taste for detail.

Here is part of his artist statement pertaining to his Line Wars Series (images below):

From tables vs. chairs to cowboys vs. aliens and cookies vs. milk, The Line Wars began as a series of over 100, 9×12 inches, ink drawings that emerged from sketches and doodles–the most rudimentary expression of visual thinking. The images are based on the entertainments of childhood and adolescence: Video games, action figures, strategy board games–always two forces opposing one another. The Line Wars is a celebration of making impulsive, nonchalant drawings, as well as a personal journey into nostalgia and an homage to geekdom.

01a_LineWars_SAMPLE_DETAILS_2




21_22




13




09




08




07




05




03

Here are some other artworks of Ernest’s:

56a_Priests_Mantids_ver2




55_Life_HiddenValley




55a_Life_HiddenValley




54_USS_Egghead




53a_Ode_to_Odin_better




52c_lessons_in_siegery_BEST




34_torpedobomber_vs_wasps




33_USS_Permafrost




31a_An_Intro_Of_Sorts_FINISHED

Additionally, here is a link with some images of one of Ernest’s most recent collaborations.

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