March 13, 2008, 01:03 p.m. Bucharest time, 11504 votes for Brancusi

We always knew there's something not quite wholesome about Mr Saatchi, and his art gathering and promotion techniques were at times questionable. He's a great man for certain, and a great promoter of art, but this time he's went too far: fiddling with a democratic voting process. See how votes for Brancusi DECREASED during the day. Now I'm asking you: how can votes decrease? I thought people can't take their votes back. If they did, GW Bush would have been deselected from his position in no time.

Write to Saatchi and fight the power! You can't keep Brancusi down!

March 13, 2008, 03:25 a.m. Bucharest time, 11799 votes for Brancusi

Amy Bennett

Waiting, oil on panel, 16 x 30 inches

From Now On, oil on panel, 13 x 13 inches

We Can Never Go Home Again, oil on panel, 22 x 36 inches

Sleeping Separately, oil on panel, 20 x 20 inches

Someday You'll Long for This, oil on canvas, 40 x 60 inches

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Good at Parties, oil on canvas, 36 x 48" 2003

I really am amazed when I look at Amy Bennett's works. The care and attention given to tiny, almost insignificant details is incredible. And I find myself thinking that I must be some sort of super-viewer, an uber-voyeur. Better yet, I think this is the birds-eye view that only a god who peers down from a hidden vantage point on Mount Olympus can see. They are there and observe Leisurely the lives of the mortals.

The painterly observation takes in everything with a non-critical eye, and presents it all to us, the regular viewers. It is us who can make judgments, if we feel like it. The artist just loves what she sees and, and loves us too, I think, since she lets us think as we see fit about what we see and what we want to see. (Mig)

Terry Rodgers

Immaculate Reflection, 2006, 60" x 76 ½", oil on linen

Comfort Zone, 2007, 157cm x 168cm, oil on linen

This Is Our Youth, 2004, 142cm x 229cm, oil on linen

Shades of Olympus, 2004, 179cm x 251cm, oil on linen

Negotiating the Future, 2004, 160cm x 203cm, oil on linen

The Main Attraction, 2004, 152cm x 244cm, oil on linen

I am not sure what can I say about this artist. He's a fine draughtsman for sure, and clearly knows his anatomy lessons. And also has a fine eye for lasciviousness and debauchery. And a flair for compositions with many characters - which, believe you me, are pretty hard to handle properly. Also, the great wealth of detail shows he's very skilled and pays attention to all minutiae of the depicted objects and characters (glints in crystal glasses, bra and knicker marks on suntanned bodies, sparkles on jewels). Terry Rodgers, besides being a very good painter, is also a fine connoisseur of smutty garments. An A+ for that!

What I truly wonder is whether the artist has sketched his charcters en ensemble or one by one, in individual sittings?
(Mig)

My friend Tommy Kane

Whatever I have to say about our friend Tommy Kane would never make him justice. I mean it. This artist is so involved with his art, it is really hard to find a domain of his activity (see his website) on which to pass a comment lacking admiration.

I like his paintings best because Mr Kane brings to life a plethora of characters from the American Dream and popular culture who can speak volumes about where art has got to this day (or, at least, that's what I think). Comic book heroes make an appearance not in all their Technicolor or printed glory, but in a guise similar to that of condottieri of the High Renaissace, or a glorious duke of the 17th century.

Astro Boy flies past a flabbergasted officer from a 1950s sitcom or film, but why is this nice man so surprised? Maybe he's surprised we are watching him put in a frame he would not have dreamed of. When do you think was the last time he thought about art ?

And the animal portraits manage the rare feat of characterising the depicted animals sincerely, in all their horse-ness and dog-ness. In the meantime, they are lent that specific aura only a portrait can have, that presence that makes one empathise with the depicted subject.

Good job, Mr Kane!

(Mig)

Scott Stulen

i saw this from a guy who saw it online
marker and acrylic on panel, 12 ” x 12 ” 2005


I feel I am losing my sense of wonder
marker, glitter and acrylic on panel, 12 ” x 12 ” 2005

conceptual traps for fictional animals

flashe, enamel and acrylic on panel, 18” x 24” 2006

Yeah, My Mom Grow Weeds

enamel, acrylic, felt, foam, fabric, cut paper, ink, watercolor, colored pencil, and contact paper on panel 48” x 48” 2004

well owl bee
enamel, acrylic, felt, foam and sandpaper on fabric 52 ” x 50 ” 2005

things that are gnawing at me and the trees in my backyard (detail)

graphite on paper, 52” x 76” 2005

i never wanted to be a cowboy until it was too late

sharpie, felt, and foam on fabric, 24 ” x 30 ” 2005

Well, what can I say more in praise of this artist than these images have not already told you? It's clear that something is still true about painting - and was used successfully by the likes of Warhol and Rauschenberg: - it can create a vivid, true overview of our society.

Scott Stulen likes to play with image. And, in one of the images above, he toys with Warhol's reading of ready-made culture. Famous Andy's Brillo box thus appears in the same frame as Bambi, equivalencing pop(art)-culture with popular culture: ready-made vs. archetypal cuteness, art legend vs. Disney's legend.
(And no, I'm not having a swipe at Disney's role in globalisation).
(Mig)

Robin de Goede

STRANGER PROJECT

JKR KROMAREK

Bahnhof, oil on canvas, 120X180 cm

Bunker, oil on canvas, 140X200 cm

Heimtrainer, oil on canvas, 100X160 cm

Kaefer 01, oil on canvas, 80X100 cm

Tiefgarage 03, oil on canvas, 180X60 cm

Tunnel, oil on canvas, 80X100 cm

Ueberspiel, oil on canvas, 80X100 cm

JKR Kromarek is a good example of the recent re-evaluation of painting.

You see, people, Painting is the new Photography, only way better. This is reality with a twist. Anyone could have taken a photo of a car-park, but not anyone could have put a twist in the vision of a carpark. Because it denotes reality (whereas photography represents it), painting can afford to be more personal and thus skew, embellish, or simply just report a state of fact / being. I think this is what JKR does. (Mig)

Eduard Bezembinder

Mr Bezembinder is good. He really is! His work could be catalogued under 'Compute-Assisted Illustration', but his works presented here are made in oil / acrylic / tempera / gouache on paper / canvas / panel, as a picture with the man in his studio clearly demonstrates.

But what matters most here is the surreal / unreal pictorial atmosphere, which seems to be based on landscapes from day-to-day world, transformed through the obliteration of selected details, and the addition of patterns and other details which come from elsewhere. From another painting? From a parallel reality? From a parallel universe, maybe?
(Mig)