if you somehow stumbled accidentally upon the work of norwegian artist damselfrau, you’d be forgiven for thinking you had unearthed a cache of ancient vestments; something mystical, arcane—maybe even occult. defined by intricate beadwork, delicate lace and bold, bright colour, damselfrau’s masks are at once visually arresting and bewitchingly unsettling. beautifully reshaping the face of the weare

when south african artist Esther Mahlangu started painting at the age of 10, she never thought she would end up being one of her country’s cultural ambassadors, taking her unique, tradition-driven art and entrepreneurship around the globe. today, 82-year-old Dr. Esther Mahlangu has exhibited her work in some of the world’s most important museums, was the first woman to create a BMW art car, receiv

a moscow-based designer takes us back to the year 1995 with a glimpse of what instagram might look like had it existed more than 20 years ago. misha petrick envisions the popular picture sharing app on a windows 95 operating system, with its 8-bit graphics, pixelated MS sans serif font, and familiar teal blue background. a series of animated gifs illustrate three different aspects of instagram use

‘how many lives do our electronics have?’ asks benjamin von wong, throwing a dead laptop onto a pile of others. his three-scene-evolution of tech are made entirely of discarded, forgotten components. circuit boards. keyboards. laptops. e waste. all images courtesy of benjamin von wong benjamin von wong and his team remind us that less than 15% of e waste is recycled. the rest end up in landfills t

daigo ishii + future-scape architects has envisioned six great cities as tokyo-themed urban landscapes, drawing from the rich graphic language and vibrant visual effects seen on the city’s streets. presented as part of the venice architecture biennale, ‘worldwide tokyo-lization project’ explores the idea of ‘locality’ and asks ‘what is the image of a city?’ if elements from its environment are rep

catherine nelson painstakingly pieces together thousands of images to form fictional worlds (above) ‘okavango’, 2016 | pigment print from digital photograph all images courtesy of michael reid gallery blending her training as a painter, and her expertise in cinematic visual effects, artist catherine nelson has established a photographic technique that turns the traditional notions of the medium on

scientists’ greatest discoveries become superpowers in these 8-bit animated gifs all images courtesy of diego sanches seven famous scientists whose significant discoveries and inventions changed the world have been given superpowers based on their contributions to the field. sao paulo-based illustrator diego sanches has created 8-bit pixel caricatures of stephen hawking, charles darwin, albert ein

photographer documents the architectural details of ceilings in iran (above) ceiling of hazrat-masoumeh mosque in qom, iran all images courtesy of mehrdad an instagram photographer is taking viewers on a visual journey through the history of iranian architecture and design. m1rasoulifard captures the structural and artistic intricacies of iran’s most significant places of worship and cultural comp

filip hodas’ otherworldly landscapes suggest surreal interventions by alien forces all images courtesy of filip hodas the otherworldly landscapes digitally crafted by filip hodas transport the viewer into a hypnagogic, hyperrealistic space that defies the physical laws that govern the world around us. since the beginning of 2015, the prague-based graphic designer has been realizing a daily render

jati putra bends reality through digitally distorted landscapes all images couretsy of jati putra when looking at indonesian graphic designer jati putra‘s digital images, there is something both strangely familiar and wildly unnatural at work. his reality-distorting manipulations comprise a collection of natural and urban landscapes that have been fragmented, distorted and reimagined in an alterna

joanne mitchell uses digital tech to form ethereal air bubble artworks all images courtesy of C. rennie artist and designer joanne mitchell recently completed her practice-based PhD at the university of sunderland, where she developed a method to create complex air bubbles in glass using digital technology. the resulting works, which employ air as a tool for expression, are currently showing in ‘f

hero-glyphics by josh lane designer and illustrator josh lane told us more about his hero-glyphics series. avengers like most of the work I do, this series was self initiated. I started them in late august last year I have always had an affinity for ancient egyptian art and hieroglyphics – the ancient egyptians developed an elegant way to communicate their stories using minimalistic imagery and sy

christian tagliavini’s photographs recreate renaissance painting protagonists (above) lucrezia all images courtesy of christian tagliavini for ‘1503’, christian tagliavini draws from 16th century master painter bronzino, the italian mannerist painter from florence. bronzino’s portraits from that era are generally characterized by the elegant and sophisticated stylistic interpretation of static, an

laurent chéhère’s airborne architecture series sees french houses fly all images © laurent chéhère french photographer laurent chéhère‘s ongoing ‘flying houses’ series takes cues from his love of cinema and personal wanderings around little-known neighborhoods of his hometown of paris. five, never-before-exhibited images from the series are presented by muriel guépin, NY from now until february 22

sou fujimoto adds greenery to layered cube installation in paris many small cubes, 2014 steel, anodise aluminum, trees / 800 x 900 x 1000 cm presented by galerie philippe gravier, paris; with the support of intermonde light sculptor, patrick rimoux image © marc domage marking his first work in paris, japanese architect sou fujimoto has realized a monumental installation as part of the small nomad