New Hardware Girls Photos by Julie Watai

Here are two new Hardware Girls photos published very recently. The first is the electrifying Yun*Chi glowing in hot pink neon light. The next is a beautiful photo of Shikako all caught up in colorful cables. Lingerie by Neon Opera Tokyo. The first photo was taken in the Team Lab and the second one was taken in the CSSL in Osaka, Japan. Both photographs were done by Japanese photographer Julie Watai.

See also:

Fairy Tale Antenna x Julie Watai

Yun*Chi Releases Shake You Mini Album

"Bonsai B" by Takanori Aiba

Here is an incredible miniature sculpture entitled "Bonsai B" by Takanori Aiba. This amazing artist/designer was born in 1953. He started his art career as a freelance maze illustrator in 1978. His maze drawings were regularly featured in the fashion magazine "Popeye" for 10 years. In 1981 he started his own company called “Graphics and Designing Inc.” His work includes some architectural design and conceptual art. Much of Aiba's work is inspired by the traditional Japanese art forms of bonsai (miniature trees) and suiseki (stone appreciation). See more of Aiba's incredible works here.

See also:

Makoto Wada Anti Nuclear Poster

Japanese Bikini Girls Playing in Shit

New Collage Artwork by Rex Ray

Released just today, here is a very beautiful and awesome new collage artwork done by the one and only Mr. Rex Ray:



See also: Rex Ray Clowns

Related:

Art Review: Rex Ray Clowns

Rex Ray to Rob Pongi: "FU"

Photographer Hal's WTF Japan Plastic People Photos

Via cbsnews.com January 29, 2012

Because of the rapid and ongoing evolution of the internet, many mainstream news media organizations are now facing sharp declines in viewer ratings and credibility. As a response to that problem, CBS News has broadened their run-of-the-mill news coverage to include WTF Japan in their recent report about Japan's very own Photographer Hal and his popular work of WTF photographs of plastic-wrapped people:





Photographer Hal devised this series in which he asked couples if they would be sealed in a plastic futon bag together while showing themselves as individuals and positioned as couples.

You can see many more interesting photos in this series at Photographer Hal's website

Related: Japanese Girls Still Sucking Door Knobs

Japanese Girls Still Sucking Door Knobs

Some call it soft porn, others call it WTF art. But whatever you call it our favorite Japanese photographer tomorokoshi still has his crew of young Japanese girls sucking on door knobs:





See more of tomorokoshi's photograhy.

Related: Young Japanese Girls Sucking Door Knobs

Liu Bolin: China's #1 'Forever Alone' Artist

While many countries attempt in vain to overthrow Japan as THE #1 WTF superpower, China may now have a lock on the world's #1 Forever Alone artist:



Actually, this is one of the many incredible works by China's world-renowned camouflage artist Liu Bolin. His work has been shown in many countries and one of his recent solo exhibitions “The Invisible Man,” was produced by Eli Klein Fine Art and held in New York.



But before asking yourself "Why, China, Why?" Bolin's art is considered by many as a very poignant statement on our world and the anonymous state of so many poverty-stricken people all over the globe. Early in his career, his exhibits were shut down by Chinese authorities making him virtually 'anonymous' but through that experience he developed his art even more. "My pieces talk about the question of the social status of art in general. In my work the artist is hiding to restore his strength and to protect himself," says Bolin.

After graduating with a master's degree from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2001, Bolin became a college teacher but resigned after only four years. He then moved to Beijing's old city of Suo Jia Village and began his fantastic voyage. You can see more of Bolin's work here.

See also: China: The Great Wall of Graffiti

Japan's Chim↑Pom‬ 'Super Rats' Attack Tokyo

Via Huffington Post 10/25/11

Just after the 3-11 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster that struck Fukushima, world wide media immediately focused on Japan. Shortly after that, a group of Japanese artists known as ‪Chim↑Pom‬ launched their own nuclear art attack on Tokyo's Shibuya station and added a very relevant and explosive guerrilla installation to Taro Okamoto's "Myth of Tomorrow" mural which is an historical homage to Japan's previous nuclear holocausts:




This installation piece entitled "Level 7 feat. Myth of Tomorrow" created a big scandal as at first it was anonymously featured in world news and Japanese headlines. This work was very skillfully done in order to blend in with Okamoto's style. Within an hour from installation it was all over Twitter and other social sites. Then it was quickly reported by mainstream Japanese media. A day later it was taken down by the police and called "graffiti" and "malicious mischief." A police investigation followed and public debates in the press and on the internet discussed whether or not it was a crime. Soon afterwards ‪Chim↑Pom‬ released this video on Youtube:



and created even more controversy! Following that the group held a press conference and admitted that it was their work and added it to their ensuing "Real Times" exhibition which was held from May 20th - May 25th in Tokyo and from June 20th - 27th in Osaka. After both exhibitions, the police came and investigated the group's leaders and the "graffiti" case was sent to court early in July.

Well, now ‪Chim↑Pom‬ is making world wide headlines once again with their new "Super Rat" exhibit. In this installation they have further developed their shock art style by catching a bunch of big, huge rats in Shibuya's Centa Gai area and making them into taxidermic Pikachus aimed at Japanese girls who dress up as the famous anime character and ravage Shibuya in hordes:



Here is a recent interview with the group:



IMHO, more of this kind of art really needs to be made in Japan today. For more information about the legendary ‪Chim↑Pom‬, please visit their official website.

"Heavy Metal Flower Power" by Rob Pongi

Here is an abstract 3D scene entitled "Heavy Metal Flower Power." Modeled, textured, rendered in Cinema 4D and composite edited in Photoshop by Rob Pongi:




To see a larger version of this piece click here.

Art Review: "Rex Ray Clowns"

One day a couple years ago, I was clowning around on Bowienet, and as usual, I got a little carried away and then, literally, BLOWN AWAY when I received the below collage as a response from the well-known artist Rex Ray:

And I don't know what it all means "FU", "ForU", "FapU" or whatever, but to be so noted by one of the world's greatest contemporary fine artists, is indeed, quite an honor. Nevertheless, I plan on creating some kind of artistic response soon. So stay tuned!

Anyway, just a couple of days ago, Mr. Ray unveiled a truly stunning new series of paintings entitled "Rex Ray Clowns":



Up until now, this highly acclaimed artist has mostly been known for his prolific fine art work in collage, graphic design, interior design, commercial art and popular entertainment media.

However, this new series marks a significant development in Ray's stellar career and presents a whole new remarkable side of the artist's true talent and incredible vision. What makes this recent launch so appealing is Ray's photorealistic style of painting or Trompe-l'œil which, essentially, brings these cartoon character portraits to life in a kind of surreal "Disneyesque" manner.

At first look, with all of the clowns clustered together on his new Ha Ha Said The Clowns site, some early reviews have said that this new set is "scary" or "evil" in a positive way of course. And, obviously, some of the paintings do depict such human emotions and personifications.

However looking closer at each individual portrait, it is clearly seen that these oils encapsulate many other human expressions of sadness, happiness, silliness, and love. In a very clever style that is not unlike life itself, Ray presents all of these emotions through the use of prominent smiling faces in these caricatures, thus giving us an even higher level of perspective into his true artistic genius.

To read more news about Rex Ray, please visit his official website.

China: The Great Wall of Graffiti

These days in China the graffiti/street art scene is booming and becoming quite popular both domestically and throughout the world. In fact, The Great Wall of China itself is being heavily tagged by many of the four million visitors it sees each year. And while many people believe that this is all a relatively new art evolution, the truth is that graffiti in China has had a very significant and colorful history that started long ago before this recent boom.

According to Wikipedia's Graffiti in Asia:

"In China, graffiti began with Mao Zedong in the 1920s who used revolutionary slogans and paintings in public places to galvanise the country's communist revolution. Mao holds the record for the longest piece of graffiti, which contains 4000 characters criticizing his teachers and the state of Chinese society."

And an article from 2003 in the China Daily claims that:

"During the Cultural Revolution, pesky neighbors could be eliminated through accusations posted on a community wall. When Deng Xiaoping made his move for opening and reform, he designated a wall in Beijing where people could freely write their thoughts."

Currently, there are many very talented artists and groups that work together like Beijing's ABS-Crew and Shanghai's Oops Graffiti Crew who are generally designers and illustrators that work for advertising agencies. And the majority of their street art includes cool intricate designs and graphic tags rather than political protests. However, recently the ABS-Crew created a huge stunning mural entitled "Inflation" which clearly is a powerful statement against capitalists:




In December of 2010, many Graffiti Artists Bombed Beijing during an international event called "Meeting the Neighborhood Graffiti Week" in "The More Than + Pop Art Festival." Here is an English news video on that:



See also: King Robbo vs Banksy: "Graffiti Wars"

Lego Godzilla Attacks Lego Japanese in Tokyo!

Recently a Godzilla-like creature was spotted off the coast near Fukushima. Well now Sad Old Biker has released proof that a Lego Godzilla is attacking Tokyo:



RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!

«(°__°)»

Japanese Bikini Girls Playing in Shit

Just when you thought that you have seen it all before in Japan, along comes yet another WTF image of some Japanese Bikini Girls playing in shit:



Actually the above is some artwork by the well-known contemporary artist Makoto Aida and is entitled "Shit by Jomon-type Monster (2003)":

An ephemeral outdoor ceramic piece made with art students and volunteers, Shit by Jomon-type Monster (2003), consisted of mounds of coiled, brown clay that simultaneously resembled gigantic feces and the pots left by Japan’s pre-historic Jomon civilization. Intentionally crude, the work was an embrace of failure...

Here is a recent interview with Makoto Aida "Bye-bye Kitty!!!":



See also:

Young Eye Popping Japanese Bikini Girl!

Poop steak, from Japan of course

Japanese Models: True Works of Art

According to Wikipedia: "Japanese painting (絵画 ,Kaiga) is one of the oldest and most highly refined of the Japanese arts, encompassing a wide variety of genre and styles. As with the history of Japanese arts in general, the history of Japanese painting is a long history of synthesis and competition between native Japanese aesthetics and adaptation of imported ideas."

Well, in the below video, we get to see a beautiful Japanese model adapt a whole new style of painting which is not at all refined, indeed:



And here are some more Japanese models painting, playing and very proudly posing:



Well, the legendary Spanish artist Pablo Picasso once said: "One must act in painting as in life, directly."

Be sure to see even more of this very intriguing and very direct style of body painting at Models Asia

Japanese Jack Off Statue Pumped Up for MILLIONS!!!

Japanese Jack Off Statue Pumped Up for MILLIONS!!!

May 8 2008

Via Gawker, Manhattan Media News and Gossip

Takashi Murakami's 'My Lonesome Cowboy' to rope in seven figures at Sotheby's



"Artist and designer of the now-iconic Vuitton handbags, Takashi Murakami, is auctioning off several pieces in Sotheby's upcoming spring auctions. The most valuable, estimated between $3-4 million, is a sculpture of a manga dude, um, "ejaculating in lasso-like form," titled "My Lonesome Cowboy." Hey, it's not NSFW if it's art."