I’m giving a new series of posts a go: “So You Like…”
We are built to like art, but it’s understandably on the periphery of most peoples’ attention. And that’s cool; it’s hard to find art that really speaks to you, so it can be hard to wade through it all and get into art. I look at hundreds of images a day and only find a few a week that I would seriously consider buying, or even printing out and hanging on my studio wall.
“So You Like…” will help you fill that gap by linking an artist you’re already familiar with to other artists you might not have seen before.
This came about after Scott and I spent a weekend watching all the Alien movies. And the deleted scenes. And the featurettes. And the behind the scenes goo. Near the end, and just as an interview with Giger was about to begin I exclaimed exasperatingly, “I haaaaate Giger.” Scott was surprised, but with his lawyer-like questioning system we got to the bottom of the issue: I don’t hate Giger. I’m frustrated that he is the only trippy bio-mechanoid horror artist that most people are familiar with.
And so Scott suggested that I start a series of posts to lead people to more artists in a super easy way: “So You Like…”
Here we go!
Giger’s work popularized the biomechaniod genre and blends human forms with skeleltal structures, otherworldly shapes and and overtone of sexuality. His work generally lacks color, and has highly-detailed anatomical structures.
If you like H. R. Giger, give a look to Zdzislaw Beksinski:
Beksinski’s work lacks the sexual overtones, but echos Giger’s intricate anatomical structures and general horrific scenes.
Beksinski was from Poland and produced much of his work in the mid 20th century, before being murdered in 2005.
If not Beksinski, how about taking a look at Alex Gray? You might recognize his work from your high school years of rocking out to Tool. His work strays from both the macabre and the sexual and adds a good bit more color, but it sticks to the focus on intricate patterns within structures that hint at machinery.
I appreciate Gray’s work for the strong focus on structural and proportional accuracy, which is often lost in fantasy works of his ilk.
This is fun! I enjoy looking for artists who relate to one another outside of the context of art history class. Leave a comment and let me know if there are any artists you want to see explored. Otherwise I’m thinking of looking at something much older than H.R. Giger for the next entry.
