Parskid’s work in paint, print and plush is full of mystery and threat. I really don’t want to get that into it. Just have a look – Forests and Streams and Landscapes of the Forgotten are a good place to start.

An interview with the artist is at CrownDozen.

Jing Quek, a 25-year-old photographer originally from Singapore, has a body of work that is both fun and compelling. His latest work, “SG Idols”, is a series of group portraits – Star Wars cosplayers, pedicab drivers, schoolgirls, martial artists, skaters, ping-pong players, soldiers, bikers, boxers, etc. Computerlove calls it an exercise in “examining the forming of communities, and identities by association,” which I might rephrase as “examining communities and the forming of identities by association.”

When I first glanced over the set, I thought “community by intention” (sports, cosplay), but soon realized that the “community by necessity” (soldiers, students, workers) debunked that approach. The photos are all well composed, the subjects richly lit and purposefully arranged. The more I look at them, however, the more this last point – their arrangement – struck me as unfortunate, an aesthetic liberty that diminishes the potential gravity between the portraits by homogenizing some details.
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A new exhibition on the life of work of Belgian comic artist Hergé – father of globetrotting, cowlicked reporter Tintin – opened yesterday at the Pompidou Center. I personally had no idea that such a show was in the offing until, in the course of some early-evening X-mas shopping in the Marais, I walked past Beaubourg and discovered the awesome billboard pictured above. Only after the 3rd or 4th shot did I look at the exhibition date and realize it was the first day. Read the rest of this article »