The bizarre, surreal and grotesque illustrations by Elif Varol Ergen

Elif Varol Ergen is an artist from Turkey who uses several techniques such as acrylic, ink, silkscreening, digital imaging and mixed media. The result of her work are bizarre, surreal and grotesque images, where nightmare creatures have multiple eyes and mouths, where children are everything but innocent, and where the predominant colors are the red from blood and the fading blue from lifeless corpses.

Beginning in 2010, these disturbing images were inspired by the artist's thoughts about children violence, from and towards children, sexual, physical and psychological abuses. As an example of what started her reflections, she tells us the case of a young girl, 11 years old, who killed her mother in cold blood and went to school after that.

The monstrous and grotesque creatures from Ergen's art are distorted reflexes of what these kids have been through. And those kids almost always grow up. And is not rare they become agents of creating more of their own monsters.

The style of Elif Varol Ergen's art remembers me the grotesque style of some japanese artists, such as Suehiro Maruo, who creates his distorted beings as they were legendary monsters and demons (youkais). However, japanese artists seems to generally focus over the erotism in the grotesque, but Ergen seems to concentrate her focus in symbolic and psychological implications.

Appreciate the bizarre, surreal and grotesque illustrations by Elif Varol Ergen:

Images from Elif Varol Ergen's website. Indicated by Empty Kingdom - Elif Varol Ergen.

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.