Martín Kukso

in

These weren't just Game Over screens; they were little moments of drama and character. When you could dance around the room and humiliate your opponents. Martín saw that when most of us were too busy being annoyed to notice.

What makes the leap to sculpture so inspired is the way it amplifies without distorting. The original pixel-art illustrations – credited to legendary Capcom artists Akiman and Kinu Nishimura – were already slightly caricatured, which gave them a playfulness that stopped them tipping into cruelty. (Although to be fair, I'd have gladly seen my opponents suffer more if I ever managed to beat them!)

Nevertheless, Martín has preserved that tone with care. "I wanted to bring that same energy into a different medium," he explains, "something that doesn't feel violent, but instead comes across as a bit playful." And it works. These heads are bruised and puffy and cross-eyed in a way that makes you grin rather than wince.

Martín Kukso site and Insta

Calicornication: Postcards of Giant Produce (1909)

in
Produced by the prolific San Francisco–based publisher Edward H. Mitchell, each card features a single rail car rolling through lush farmland. Aboard are gargantuan, luminous fruits and vegetables: dimpled navel oranges, a dusky bunch of grapes, and mottled walnuts. Placed end-to-end, the cards would make a colorful train crossing California’s fertile valleys. Unlike other, more action-packed “tall-tale” cards — filled with farmers, fisherman, and children for scale — Mitchell’s series is restrained. Sharply illuminated, the colossal cargo lean toward artwork rather than gag. “A Carload of Mammoth Apples”, green-yellow and gleaming, could have been plucked from Rene Magritte’s The Son of Man.

michelangelo foot sketch sells for $27.2 million

in

via Hypebeast:

The work itself is a rare red chalk study for the Libyan Sibyl, one of the monumental figures adorning the Sistine Chapel ceiling in the Vatican. Experts identified the sketch as a preparatory drawing created around 1511–1512. It depicts the figure’s right foot with the heel raised and toes pressed down—a specific anatomical detail necessary for the Sibyl’s twisting, weight-bearing pose.

The $27.2 million USD sale price surpasses the previous auction record for a Michelangelo work—a nude study sold in Paris in 2022 for $24.3 million. “In the 23-plus years I have been in the industry, I have been privileged to see many wonderful Old Masters moments, but today topped them all,” said Andrew Fletcher, Christie’s Global Head of Old Masters. With most of Michelangelo’s 600 surviving sketches held in museums, this sale represented perhaps the last opportunity for a private collector to own a direct link to the Sistine Chapel.

peach momoko HONO花 gin

in

Available only in Italy, unfortunately…

From the collaboration between Tripstillery Milano, Foodmetti and the extraordinary Japanese artist Peach Momoko comes HONO花, a limited edition gin created exclusively for Peach's Milanese visit. A project that combines art, taste and creative spirit in a collector's bottle, encased in never-before-seen artwork signed by the artist herself-a delicate and powerful vision that reflects her poetics and the essence of the gin itself. A gin like a work of art Made from a recipe personally conceived by Peach Momoko, HONO花 is a distillate that tells the story of the fusion of East and West, of purity of line and complexity of taste. The bottle is produced in a limited edition, designed as a collector's item for lovers of art and signature spirits. The artist Peach Momoko is one of the most acclaimed illustrators on the international scene. Known for her dreamlike covers and fusion of Japanese aesthetics and Western pop imagery, she regularly collaborates with Marvel Comics, MTG, Tool, One Piece trading cards and others. In addition, she has won two Eisner awards, considered the Oscars of comics. His visual universe--made of dreams, delicacy and strength--takes liquid form here in a gin that is both homage and self-portrait.

(via)