Margaret Durow

We keep on talking about new talents, people with a special ability to make us imagine. Today's time for Margaret Durow, a young special gifted artist from the States whose work has appeared in many places already. We believe light has a special prominence in her photographs and we get surprised when we realize we've been staring at them during some minutes.

We: Where are you from and what do you do?

Margaret: Wisconsin. I’m home for the summer, but am going to school at UW Madison where I study the biological aspects of conservation.

W: What does art mean to you?

M: Art is a way to show how I feel

W: Where do you find inspiration?

M: Life, living, everywhere, in people, light, water, music

W: Which are your favourite artists?

M: My friends

W: Future plans?

M: Falling in love with a farmer

You'll find more about Margaret and her work at her website and flickr.

Jonathan Jacques

Refined appears in the dictionary as "free of impurities; purified". Jonathan's work comes to us as pure fresh air, with it's soft tones and thoughtful mood portraits. We could wish to find more words to describe his pictures, but we believe no one can explain how being in heaven is.

Where are you from and what do you do?
I live in Brussels. I don’t really know what I’m doing there, but I like it.

What does art mean to you?
Without art, life would be vague. Art is an ode to existence.

Where do you find inspiration?
It finds me, I’m just a victim shooting as a form of self-defense.

Which are your favorite artists?
Really, there are so much good artists, it’s impossible to name a few without wanting to add another. So I’ll just name one, John Everett Millais, for his portraits of children.

Plans for the future?
To make an image that has such a disturbing high amought of unspeakable, almost unrecognizable beauty, I simultaneously wished I never made it. Preferably would happen in a far, far away future, two weeks before I die.

You'll find more about Jacques and his work at his flickr and website.

Hellovon

Today we go back to illustration and graphic design field. His name is Von and we could say he represents the great creative movement of the present London youth scene. Combining traditional drawing with digital techniques he has developed his own style and signature. An accurate and impeccable work which has been published worlwide and commissioned by some bigwigs as Nike and the popular Esquire magazine. Here you have his words&work:


What does art mean to you?

As I work both as a commercial/graphic artist alongside producing work exclusively to be exhibited in galleries I would consider the latter fell into that parameter. Having said that inevitably it is a symbiotic relationship as to varying degrees one informs the other. I also sometimes put personal work into my commercial folio and can end up being commissioned off the back of the personal work as much as previous commercial jobs. Personal work is incredibly important as it will more often than not give you the breathing space to develop whereas the commercial market will quite often ask for a variation of something you've already done. It would be so easy to become stale without it.

Recently the overall balance of my working practice is also changing as I am beginning to shift focus more onto creating one off original drawings and paintings for both exhibitions and private sale through ShopVon (http://www.shopvon.com/). Over the next few months I will be working towards a London solo toward the end of the year so a lot of my spare time in between jobs is spent working on new canvases. I couldn't purely work on only commercial jobs, I need the time spent on personal pieces to keep me sane.

Where do you find inspiration?

It's impossible to say, somewhere between my music collection, a cup of tea and getting out of London.

We've seen you in several occasions drawing huge walls, we just wonder how do you feel before and after the illustration is done...

I think you're referring to my Migration exhibition where a flock of abstracted birds was first installed on a billboard at the Truman Brewery, London (http://vimeo.com/1644177) in late August followed by a billboard on the side of the Espeis Gallery in Williamsburg a month later (http://vimeo.com/1798516) - the project inheriting the migrational nature of it's content. Those weren't drawn directly onto the billboards but a replication of the original drawings pasted up. Logistically getting that done was a challenge, and one I couldn't have done without the help of a close friend, but worth it in the end. It was surprising how well my work translated to such a large scale, having only worked much smaller previously.

Which has been the most challenging commission so far?

Commercially it would be the 17 window installation for Selfridges I recently completed as part of the World Cup celebrations for Nike Stadium at Selfridges. Gallery wise I think perhaps my last show "Semblance" in LA last year - but it wouldn;t seem right if your latest work didn't challenge you the most.

Which are your favourite artists?

James Jean, Tapies, Ron Mueck, Willy Verginer, Edward Hopper, Chloe Early, Sam Weber, Kirsty Whiten, Pieke Bergmans, Kate MccGwire, Emily Forgot.

Future plans, future exhibitions?

There's a few big personal projects I'm working on. Gallery wise I am working on more originals in the Semblance series, which was first exhibited in LA last year at Subliminal Projects and Cerasoli Galleries respectively, building towards my first London solo show proper of all originals. I'm also fine tuning the details of releasing a lot of never before seen original and prints from the Animal series (http://www.flickr.com/photos/hellovon/sets/72157617707076215/). For now details are under wraps but I am very excited about both!

You can find more info about Hellovon at his website.

Max Pigott

Today we must take a look to a British talent called Max. We say talent 'cause we believe he still has to show pretty much to all of us, indeed he likes what he does and that's something no one will ever take out from him. Max's work could appear in a book and his name would be one we would mark to look for and afterwards put a few of his pictures onto our wall. When asking him about his references we thought on Lise Sarfati et voilà, there she appeared between others, so please enjoy his words and his work.

We: Where are you from and what do you do?
Max: I am originally from a town called Milton Keynes which is pretty much smack bang in the middle of England. Now, for most of the year I live in Plymouth where I study photography at uni.

W: What does art mean to you?
M: I feel like i have learnt a lot through art, not just about art itself but the way it makes me actually think more everything, without art in all its different forms i think i'd be very lost.

W: Where do you find inspiration?
M: To be honest, I think i get most of my inspiration from my friends on my course. Photography is pretty much the only thing some of us talk about which is incredibly geeky but it also generates so many thoughts and ideas.

W: Which are your favourite artists?
M: It changes all the time but at the moment Alec Soth, Lise Sarfati and Aron Wiesenfeld are particular favourites.

W: Future plans?
M: Recently i have been trying to work out the logistics of studying an MA photography course in Ghent, Belgium so in a year or two, fingers crossed, i'll be there 'furthering my career' and accumulating more debt!

You'll find more about Max and his work at his flickr.