Using a combination of figurative art and free-flowing abstraction, Serbian painter Milan Hrnjazovic endeavors to visually represent the emotional anxiety of the young adult female's evolving sense of self-image and burgeoning sexual desires. In particular, he turns a modern eye toward the sexual awakening of a Grimm fairy tale heroine, "Little Briar Rose," endowing her with the intelligence and self-awareness to confront and overcome the pains of maturation rather than retreat into a deep, dreamless slumber from which only the virility of a grown man can arouse her. 

Sergei Marshennikov was born in 1971 in Ufa, Russia. From a young age Marshennikov was interested in drawing, sculpture, and painting. Encouraged by his family and his private tutors, he decided to become a professional artist, and in 1995 he graduated from the Ufa Art School, later continuing his education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Saint Petersburg.

Based out of Philadelphia, JoKa's humorous and often unsettling acrylic paintings represent a pastiche of influences and symbolism, consisting of multiple layers of meaning that oscillate between the patently absurd and the deadly serious. His work skews and distorts the human body, obscuring faces to an almost depersonalizing degree, yet retaining a sense of surreal familiarity deeply rooted in the pop culture nostalgia of the collective unconscious. 

We can't believe we haven't put a gigantic spotlight on Brooklyn-based fine artist, Mu Pan in the past, but with a little Ralph Steadman influence and dark political satire, this is the kind of artwork to wake up to. The SVA grad mixes a bit of surreal, humans versus non-human battle scenes with a great insight to his sketchbook works. There is a ton of good stuff here... get lost. 

Definitely a show we are going to see in person if we can, because these stunning nearly 12-foot tall pieces look grand in the new Ooga Booga #2 space in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles. Ooga Booga has always been an epicenter of good art and culture in Chinatown, but this new space, especially with LA-based artist Owens' work in it, looks like it will be a great space for exhibitions in the months to come.

Christine Wu is an Los Angeles based certified practitioner of the arts and general awesome maker. Stylistically, her work is multi-layered with haunting and sexual undertones. She often depicts people in flux, capturing the vulnerability of self discovery.

Among the many exciting things that happened in Los Angeles this past weekend, the Hammer opened its new exhibition featuring a retrospective of the works of Llyn Foulkes. The Hammer does a great job selecting high caliber artists that are not necessarily on everyone's radar, and this show is no exception to that statement. The exhibition features works from all stages of Foulkes' oeuvre.

An admission—that I am a disorganized, impulsive person—reads more optimistically on canvas because the eye has glimpsed the edge. Therefore I paint, subjectively and impatiently, colliding impressions of points with interpretations of space (the accidentals are debris) so that the composition hangs, almost magically, in mid-air.

And in here we find the roots of much of the early Juxtapoz movements. What an amazing looking show going on in the Netherlands at the Museum of Modern Art Arnhem. In the Shadow of Tomorrow: Neo-realism in the Netherlands features an incredible group of works of early neo-realists working before World War II, all working under the guise of a threat of another massive, Europe altering war on the horizon.

Sascha Braunig's current solo show at Foxy Productions in New York will be on view until February 9th. This recent body of gouache and oil portraits combine figurative painting with op art that is worth a visit if either of these genres are of particular interest. This isn't the first time we have been mesmerized by these works this month...