NEILL BLOMKAMP, I WANT A JOB ON YOUR ALIEN MOVIE!

I've not made a secret of the fact that film designers like HR Giger got me into art in the first place, and since he passed away last year, I wondered if my homage ( below ), which I did for Monster Club in November, may serve as an introduction, should they ever decide they need a 'new' Giger. 

It's just been announced that Neill Blomkamp ( District 9 / Elysium ) is to direct a total overhaul of the ALIEN mythos, picking up before the frankly terrible 3 & 4 destroyed the franchise. Mr Blomkamp - please consider this my audition!

Film design legend GMunk ( Prometheus / Tron Legacy ) says: 

''Sh*t brother, that is a RAD illustration.''

Above: Tribute to HR Giger, Pencil on cartridge paper, by Alexi K 2014

VIDEO DIARY 09/02/2015: STUDIO REPORT

LAST CHANCE TO SEE!

'Woman Disrobing' is currently available to see at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, until Sunday 15th February. There will be an update on this picture, and some new pieces in this style, soon.

Woman Disrobing, Pen & Ink on watercolour paper, by Alexi K

ON TWITTER THIS WEEK

Wow - it seems I'm in very good company! ;)

NORA APARTMENTS, ORLANDO - ALEXI K'S POLYGRAPH NUDES

Nora Apartments, Orlando




Below: Woman Disrobing ( currently in Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, UK ).

All images: Pen & Ink on A3 paper.

My POLYGRAPH NUDES ( pen & ink on paper ), were just a simple graphic experiment drawn in a pad, then forgotten about, and left on the pile of miscellany under my desk.

That is, until Robert Kothe, editor of limited series art magazine The Corner, decided to feature them on the back pages of the debut issue. From there, the art got flagged-up by a funky erotic art / fetish website, and since then, every time these drawings surface online, the internet goes nuts.

Fast forward and we have the main lady ( above ) occupying a corner of Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery's WEST MIDLANDS OPEN ( until February 15th - please go and visit, the whole show is a great endorsement of the region's talent ), and last week, Liz Seay and the team at Scott & Cormia Architecture + Interiors placed four high-resolution prints from the same series, in the gymnasium of the NORA luxury apartment building in Florida ( see below ).

The 'polygraph' style came about as a progression from my enthusiasm for life-drawing. I've always felt that an artist should, at the very least, make a regular attempt to capture his own species in art - simply as an exercise, not even necessarily to exhibit. 
I think that art has a linguistic element to it, so as a communicator, I always try to refine what I'm trying to get across. This binary style ( stark black & white horizontal lines ) is a way of communicating an idea with as little embellishment as possible. 

The images had to be re-scanned at high resolution, and refined for printing at 48in x 48in. Here's an example of how some experimental scribbles made it out of the studio and into the world...

All art copyright Alexi K.

Big thanks to Liz Seay.

...and not forgetting and all the supporters and re-tweeters, incl. DVYZE & Beautiful Agony, amongst many others.

LATEST EDITION OF MY FUTURIST ART / DESIGN / CULTURE MAG IS OUT NOW!

Featuring my interviews with current Hollywood favourites, movie designer Ash Thorp, and screenwriter Stephany Folsom. Click here.

WAR & PEACE

...Is what this blasted painting should be called. Anyway, to try and think myself into solving the problem ( ie. finishing it ), I've started to record video diaries to crystallize my thoughts. 

The footage you see here is slightly before the photograph of the same piece that I posted a couple of days ago ( which you'll see if you continue scrolling ). Eventually, the vid diaries will catch up. They're normally for my personal records, but in this case, it's a nice supplement to the usual scribblings in this blog.

They'll help to explain the thought-processes that go into creating one of my abstracts.

VIDEO DIARY 15/10/2014: TRIBUTE TO HR GIGER - WORK IN PROGRESS

A belated upload of these clips from Autumn 2014. It was something different, and a challenge, but made me think about expanding into doing some more purely pencil work in 2015.

BIG DISCLAIMER! In the second of these two clips, I make the off-the-cuff remark that the makers of the film Prometheus 'ripped-off' HR Giger, the originator of the macabre biomechanical / xenomorph look.

I am not aware, or informed in any way, of the background details of Gigers involvement - creative, financial, or otherwise - with anything to do with the continuing 'Alien' film franchise. 

I was merely expressing my vexation that such a significant and integral part of the first film's success, should suffer a watering-down through the subsequent films, while leaving the original master appearing as no more than a footnote in the franchise. I am not suggesting that the studio, or the producers and directors, or anyone else, in any way exploited or mistreated Giger. I am merely expressing a fan-boy annoyance that Giger wasn't a stronger presence in the rest of the franchise.

FROM FRIDAY 7TH NOVEMBER: TWO BIRMINGHAM SHOWS SIMULTANEOUSLY

Debuting on Friday night will be acclaimed artist Paul Newman's specially curated show of macabre art, featuring my HR Giger Tribute ( seen here as work-in-progress ).



MONSTER CLUB

 

 

Then, running alongside that, is the huge West Midlands Open, featuring my most famous work, 'Woman Disrobing'. Both are within a ten minute walk of each other, in a straight line. More details soon!

 

 

 

 

 





WEST MIDLANDS OPEN

NEXT APPEARANCE: MONSTER CLUB, NOVEMBER 7TH, BIRMINGHAM, UK

It's been a while, but after a tricky start, I'm in the middle of some macabre figurative art for Paul Newman's MONSTER CLUB show. It's reminded me how satisfying drawing is, so pencil art will definitely make a re-appearance in my repertoir over the next year.

 

Below: TRIBUTE TO HR GIGER ( detail ), pencil on cartridge paper ( Work In Progress ).

 

 

 

 

 

 



LATEST INTERNATIONAL SHOW: 'THE SILENCE OF ARMS', GROUP SHOW, CRETE

CURATED BY THANASSIS MOUTSOPOULOS & IOANNIS N. ARHONTAKIS

Could there possibly be a more beautiful setting for an art exhibition than the Venetian Church of St. Rocco, in Chania, Crete? In which case, it's also powerfully ironic, given the location, the subject matter, and that 2014 has been a year of global conflict and upheaval. My work ( see photographs ), is a series of digital collages. To make these, I took apart a schematic diagram of an Israeli-made Galil machine gun, and using duplication and repetition, created a series of exploding mandalas out of the various gun parts. You can see the work in more detail further down this article.

All photographs: Lamprini Boviatsou ( check out Lamprini's amazing art here ).

GUN DIAGRAMS: CLOSE-UPS ( Alexi K Artist, 2013 ).

Many thanks to Ioannis and Lamprini. The show looks great!

NEW ART PHASE: GLITCH ME QUICK

''London Glitch / Is fallin' down...''

My latest fad at the moment is to do some Glitch Art before I go to bed...unfortunately it's totally addictive, because you really don't know what you're going to get. So I end up being up til 4am. :/ Details of how to do it at end of this article.

Glitched Hannah.

Glitched View ( from Radisson Blue )

Glitched View ( from Radisson Blue ) II

Glitched Rotunda Birmingham

Glitched Scanner ( Vintage 94 edition )

Glitched Zurich Airport

HOW TO GLITCH IT:

1 ) Go through your archives, get a photo ( architectural ones work well ) and convert it to a bitmap.

2 ) Open it in WORDPAD, ( open > click rich text format > all documents ) then click on your file ( it'll appear on Wordpad as code ).

3 ) Press 'Save'.

Some people play with the code or delete bits before saving, but I find just pressing 'Save' is as good.

4 ) Go back to Photoshop to view the results...and hope for the best!

Don't get depressed if most look rubbish...occasionally it'll come out great!