Legendary surrealist painter who’s Oscar winning special effects defined the look of Ridley Scott’s Alien, H.R. Giger, died today at the age of 74 in a Zurich hospital in Switzerland, resulting from injuries he sustained in a fall.  If you’ve never had a chance to delve into his amazingly dark techno-organic work outside of the Alien / Poltergeist / Species film franchises or Dark Seed video games, he is one of our 10 Surrealists every art lover should know – and I highly encourage you to do a little googling.

I remember in the 90s the New York club The Limelight, which was a nightclub built inside what was once an old church, commissioned Giger to create a VIP H.R. Giger Room.  I had been to the Limelight a few times during it’s heyday and unfortunately never got access to the room.  The Limelight is now a mall.  According to io9 there are still a few Giger bars in existence.

His sculptures, drawings, and paintings are all insane marvels of technological futuristic wizardry, combined with living matter, muscles, tendons, vaginas, cocks, bones, exoskeletons.  If you aren’t into aliens fucking but you do want to add H.R. Giger to your art book library you may prefer his hyper-future architectural vision of New York he created in a book chock full of insanely intricate cityscapes, 1982’s  H.R. Giger N.Y. City (long out of print, good luck finding it).  For anyone else who isn’t intimidated by a little hi-tech eroticism, here is a full list of his books of his collected works.

Enjoy this small gallery sampling some of his insane future landscapes, brooding creatures, and erotic inter-species sexual depredation (some images are not safe for work):

Giger’s Alien, 1979  via vikisecrets

HR Giger at Work, 1978  – Photo credit: Mia Bonzanigo via vikisecrets

“Erotomechanics VIII” 1979 via Whatculture

Lilith, 1977 via vikisecrets

via gabinetelynch

Birth Machine Babies

via system 75

via Steve Gray

via dark planneur

via wackymania

Written by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”

[source: swissinfo.ch]

The post H.R. Giger, Legendary Surrealist Artist Behind the Character Design in Alien, is Dead [NSFW] appeared first on Artiholics.

New York – Saturday, January 18, 2014

Very shocking and unfortunate news from the NY art world tonight.  9/11 first responder and fellow Castle Fitzjohns artist Jef Campion, also known in the street art community as Army Of One, has passed away.

“Very, very sorry to receive news this evening that my friend Jef, who many of you knew as Army Of One, died today… Always an encouraging and friendly word, a firefighter and this man did so much charity work particularly for his kids at Ronald McDonald House… Very sad news… RIP, my friend…” — Oh Captain My Captain

Video via  Everyday People Project

In Jef’s own words:

“I was born an Artist, I became a firefighter”,

But it took the tragic events of 9/11/01in NYC to unleash the Artist buried deep within me, and send me back into the Studio , after a global street Art Campaign to raise awareness to the plights of Children put in Harms way through War , Poverty and Disease , and,

Trough the ashes of Ground Zero ,this Artists soul and vision was unleashed,

Prior to 9/11/01,I had packed up my studio and art supplies and was content within the Firefighters ranks,

No Art, No Creative outlet, until the World Trade Center attack.

Through Days into Months spent on the pile at Ground Zero, coupled with the social, political and religious I was now experiencing , I retreated in to a world of PSTD and self destruction , finally realizing that humanity had lost its innocence .

Years of therapy and soul searching , followed by re opening my studio and my first portfolio” Atrophy”

Was born,

“Nearly 10 years After I Quit the Creative field , ” Atrophy” combined with Haunting and emotion stories and visceral Artwork, peeled back layer after decomposing layer of a life less ordinary, a hidden life of Drug ,sex and Alcohol Abuse, a highly dysfunctional upbringing and self destruction hidden deep inside my sub conscious , this Artwork and Writing is meant to awake Primal Emotion in the viewer, welcome to my world ,

The images and writing that make up the portfolio “Atrophy ” are not about 9/11/01 or Firefighting ,my artwork breaches the Tenacity of the human Spirit with survival Under the harshest realms of madness……

Art saved My Life……”

Jef

Written by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”
[Jef Campion portrait and photos by Cojo Art Juggernaut Jef Campion quote via. Castle Fitzjohns Gallery]

The post Breaking Art World News: Army Of One aka Jef Campion is Dead appeared first on Artiholics.

Today a legend in stop-motion animation died.  Ray Harryhausen’s stop motion model animation not only influenced Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Peter Jackson, and George Lucas, but basically breathed life into an art form which would have otherwise not have gotten a second wind.

According to Deadline.com

Harryhausen’s fascination with animated models began in the early 1930s after watching Willis O’Brien’s creations in King Kong with his childhood friend, the late Ray Bradbury. He began his lifelong adventure in filmmaking with his own home movies that featured his first attempts at model animation. His genius was in bringing his models to life, becoming characters in their own right. His other major works include Mighty Joe Young (1949), It Came From Beneath The Sea (1955), 20 Million Miles To Earth (1957), Mysterious Island (1961), One Million Years B.C. (1966), The Valley Of Gwangi, (1969), The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad (1973), Sinbad And The Eye Of The Tiger (1974) and Clash of the Titans (1981).

Think of all the stop-motion effects in Movies and and TV shows that would have never been invented if the stop-motion tradition hadn’t been carried on into color film.  Gumby,  the Noid, The California Raisins, South Park, Robot Chicken, I could go on and on.

“The Lord of the Rings is my ‘Ray Harryhausen movie.’ Without his life-long love of his wondrous images and storytelling it would never have been made — not by me at least.” -Peter Jackson

Ray’s influence is vast, and he will be missed.

Written by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”

[via Deadline & Npr]

The post Stop-Motion Animation Giant Ray Harryhausen Dead at 92 appeared first on Artiholics.

Moscow, Russia, Wednesday April 3, 2013

Russian street artist Pasha 183, known by the British Press as “Russian Banksy” is dead.  According to every article I’ve read about this (by “every” I mean 2, and by “read” I mean skimmed), “Russian Banksy” hated being referred to as “Russian Banksy”, yet all the articles still are insisting on referring to him as “Russian Bansky”, and he’s dead.  That’s pretty much all anyone knows at this point.  I don’t know how he died, he was only 28, but he’s dead.  It’s really sad, I guess God needed another fake Banksy to tag up the really cold parts of heaven in Banksy style, but with slight political Russian undertones.

So all you little Banksy’s out there in your various countries, representing your individual Banksy nations.  Let this little bizarre piece of non-reporting (basically reporting on other poorly researched reports) be a warning to you, if you don’t want to die being known as the “type your country here Banksy” then take off your little mask when someone takes your picture, and let people see you are a human “being” and not a human “Banksy-ing”

Shame that he died so young, even if his work was a dead rip-off of Banksy.  He had a lot of good years working in Banksy style ahead of him.

Written by Cojo “Art Juggernaut”

Photos via buzzfeed

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