Rhys Lee

Rhys Lee's style has developed over time, from his beginnings in street art into these scrapy, weirdly coloured paintings. They're apparently based on ghost photos and the like, and definitely you get a surprisingly uncanny vibe when staring into these faces in real life.  He uses cheap acrylics on big canvases, and I like the fact that he seems to break colour rules so easily and effectively.

Matt Furie

 

Matt Furie's technique has some some superficial simularities with the new indie style going around at the moment (colour pencils and occasionally childish rendering, obsession with detail, animals, pop culture references). But I get the impression he's arrived at this place independantly, via insanity.

Utagawa Kuniyoshi

Utagawa Kuniyoshi was a master of ukiyo-e style Japanese wood block prints in the early 1800s. This stuff is amazing. He apparently had some contact with Western illustration, which had some influence on his style.

Adriana Varejão

Adriana Varejao does weird surreal tile-scapes where surfaces peel off and meat is underneath. Without trying to dumb it down too much, they are about the Spanish colonisation of South America. Really the reasoning behind these is pretty complex, and worth understanding.

Ben Quilty

 

If you're reading a blog about painting you might already know Ben Quilty. If not, it might help to know that he makes basically The Boys in painting form, with less rape and more fun. Though, for some reason, he hates that he has made a career of boganism and is now deep ( but we liked you just the way you were?). He is possibly my favourite Aussie contemporary painter.

I should also maybe mention that photos are not good to his work, in reality they are mostly huge, with paint as thick as freshly squeezed toothpaste. It is good.

Sterling Hundley

Klimt meets early Cubism, with surprisingly cool results! I tend to find most Klimt inspired artists to be a total drag, they all seem to have this stupid hair obsession. But, I have complete respect for someone who goes at the heart of what was really good about those paintings (a glossy, swirly vertigo kind of thing), and then manages to put something new into it.

See more here.

C.C. Askew

 

It seems these days I have to look so hard for illustration that's not eye gouging 'graf inspired' whatever or full of pretty girls with deer antlers. Christopher Conn Askew is out there, there is still hope!