The surrealistic paintings of women and bodies by Hannah Yata

Hannah Yata is an artist who lives in United States. She produces surreal paintings, portraying women mixed with animals and other elements of nature. According to the artist, in her own words:

"I love working with the feminine form. The female embodies so much in terms of imagery and symbolism. For things such as nature, oppression, beauty, love, emotion, sexuality there are so many layers and facets one can glean from representing the woman. As I approach the idea of femininity I bring with it my own experiences growing up as a woman and the difficulties and struggles that I have fought. The psychology of how women are portrayed in art and the media are amplified and exposed in my work. In turn, I’ve reinterpreted my experiences and how women are portrayed in today’s society to also extend to how it seems that we as individuals and as a race have objectified, commodified and exploited women, animals, and nature."

Appreciate the surrealistic paintings of women and bodies by Hannah Yata:

Images from Hannah Yata's website and her profile at DeviantArt.

The oniric and surreal photography by Dennis Ziliotto - part 2

I already posted some works of Dennis Ziliotto before, when I featured some of his sensual, surreal and grim oniric photography. In this post, I bring more of his works, with surreal and bizarre photographies: a hippo ballerina dancing in her tutu, flowers growing from mustaches of a beautiful blonde, Alice serving the head of the rabbit of Wonderland and other things typical from the craziest dreams.

Appreciate the oniric and surreal photography by Dennis Ziliotto - part 2:

Images from Dennis Ziliotto at Behance.

The amazing hyper-realistic, surreal and provocative paintings of injured girls by Gottfried Helnwein

Gottfried Helnwein is a renowned artist from Austria, with many skills. He produces paintings, photography and art installations. However, what really catched my eyes were his amazing paintings.

Using hyper-realistic techniques, a lot of Helwein's work focus on portraying little children, especially girls, in unusual and provocative contexts. Helwein creates strong and a little disturbing images, sometimes portraying girls injured, in bandages, bleeding or in blood pools, sometimes showing girls holding heavy weapons or other surreal contexts.

According to Harry S. Parker III, Director of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (where in 2004 happened an exposition of Gottfried Helnwein's work with a retrospective):

"For Helnwein, the child is the symbol of innocence, but also of innocence betrayed. In today's world, the malevolent forces of war, poverty, and sexual exploitation and the numbing, predatory influence of modern media assault the virtue of children."

The hyper-realistic paintings of Gottfried Helnwein are dark and grim because two aspects. First, because the use of light in paintings, creating interactions of light and shadows that imbue the paintings with a dark feeling. And second, because the paintings show a reality that you don't see everyday (or pretend you don't see). A dark reality that exists, but we choose not to see. The paintings also show sometimes a surreal aspect, when Helwein creates metaphors in his works mixing little girls portrayed in a realistic manner side by side with fantasy elements, as cartoons characters.

Using an amazing technique, it is hard to distinguish the paintings from photos. Helnwein's works are that kind of art that are provocative, sometimes disturbing and hard to see, but at the same time, they are so interesting and fascinating, the kind of image that it's hard to not to see and keep watching.

Appreciate the amazing hyper-realistic, surreal and provocative paintings of injured girls by Gottfried Helnwein:

The murmur of the innocents - war, blood and little girls, mixing innocence and violence





Injured girl in bandages





The disasters of war - bleeding girl







War, violence and animes



Little and armed





Los Caprichos - Bandages and blood





Murmur of the innocents - painting and detail





Self-portraits





Paintings as vintage photos, with some surreal details



The painting of a little girl and it's model

Images from Gottfried Helnwein's website. Indicated by The Suite World - She Looks So Real.