Enrico Varrasso’s Beautiful Mixed Media Assemblages

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These lovely and surreal mixed media artworks were created by Enrico Varrasso, a freelance illustrator and artist based in a small town near Toronto, Canada. After having graduated from the Ontario College of Art in 1989 with diploma in Editorial Illustration, Varrasso started creating illustrations for a wide variety of reputed magazines and design studios.

While I found the illustrations in his portfolio to be colorful and eye-catching, his mixed media artwork completely fascinated me with their abstract shapes and patterns which are masterfully blended with his digital art.

I asked him to tell me more about his creative process, and he replied, saying:

My mixed media art usually involves some of my digital art, vellum paper, acrylic paint, old car manuals oil stick, pencil, matte medium…sometimes there’s some silver foil and found book/magazine imagery that I tear out or make copies of with my copier/printer. All of this is placed on either illustration board or plywood.

I usually work in layers of imagery using the digital artwork I’ve printed out onto vellum or grab the torn pages from the old books and magazines. after placing a layer of images down with the matte medium I like to push the artwork aside to dry and start the process again on another piece…I usually work on a few at a time. the following day (usually) I like to come back to the art with fresh eyes and assess where it’s at. I continue the same process again with whatever material I feel is needed for the piece. Once again I set it aside for a day so that it can be viewed with fresh eyes. at this point I usually add some final touches with my oil stick, pencils and paint.

Varrasso counts artists like Marcel Duchamp, Paul Klee, Gerhard Richter, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, amongst his many influences. He confesses that things are never easy when one is a freelancer, but he just wouldn’t have it any other way as he loves what he does for a living.

He sells select illustrations and mixed media works from his extensive portfolio (both original as well as prints) at his online store on Saatchi Online. He also undertakes commissions, and those of you who are interested can get a custom piece done in his signature style.

Link to Enrico Varrasso’s site | Tumblr.

You can check out more of his mixed media pieces after the jump. I’ve also included a few of his digital collages for your viewing pleasure.

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The Drops Series – Highly Textured Wall Sculptures by David Drumlin

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Canadian artist David Drumlin’s latest series of medium-scale sculptures were recently displayed at a private viewing. Meant as a statement against our absurd glorification of material perfection in contemporary life, the sculptures harness the very tangible and emotive power of texture to great effect. It is the intention of the artist that the confrontation of these forms will make us attach meaning to their presence.

David Drumlin was born in 1977, in Canada,. He is a contemporary visual artist, who works primarily in mixed media.

Link to the artist’s site.

Hit the jump to see more images.

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Magnetic Cyanotype Animal Sculptures by Tasha Lewis

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There is a certain joyous playfulness in the sculptures of artist Tasha Lewis (previously), who is currently exhibiting her latest works in her solo show, “Moments of Thaw,” at the Harrison Center in Indianapolis. Though her sculptures look like taxidermied animals at first glance, each piece is actually crafted out of paper, tape and recycled materials, which are held together by powerful magnets. She once gets the form of the animal right, she covers the body with a “skin” of fabric cyanotype images, which have been hand-sewn to one another. Every part of the covering is a photograph made from a digital negative, and some skins are a collage of over 15 different images.

More from her site:

My work for this show explores how sculpture can transition through seemingly impermeable barriers. For the past year I have been creating pieces which use magnets to almost magically connect separate pieces of mixed media sculpture through solid walls. The result is that the natural form— my main muse— appears to be both actively breaking through the enclosure while simultaneously remaining dependent on the solid form to give its body shape. Thus, these animals and plants are arrested during a surge of forward momentum. The ‘thaw’ of the show’s title is the apparent momentary loss of solidity that the glass container, wooden box or plaster wall has experienced which allowed nature to break through.

The exhibit will be on view till January 25, 2013 at the Harrison Center.

Visit her site for more details.

Hit the jump to see more images taken from the show.

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Zach Welch’s Mixed Media Portraits

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Check out a few wonderful mixed media artworks from the portfolio of Zach Welch, an 18 year old American artist.

Zach considers punk rock music as a major artistic influence, and combines realistic elements with abstract geometric ones to create a hybrid with a unique “punk edge” to it. He uses colored pencil, sharpies, watercolors, paint pens, collages, and spray paint to create his layered pieces.

You can buy prints and t-shirt of this young talent’s works at Bluecanvas and Forest Ink.

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