VIRTUAL NEWS
New York, USA Fall Edition
Published October 1, 2024
Cyberdreams has entered the chat. With a new class of memetic art, the anonymous artist dares to create parables illustrating the grisly side of the human condition.
s.p., 2024
spending more time in the Cyberdreams universe uncovers a more serious game—the perennial battle of good and evil.
A notion so fundamental as good and evil seems simple to appreciate because most people believe they are on the “good” or the “morally correct” side of the delicate balance. So why is there so much division?
Many moral issues divide us, but the true battle of good and evil happens within ourselves, the battle between self-love and selfishness. Often preoccupied with the evil in the world, we neglect to confront the darkness within. Cyberdreams says, “Good and evil have always coexisted” and we say art is a medium for us to appreciate that coexistence. It’s strange how the macabre can be enlightening.
At first glance, Cyberdreams' work resembles a purely aesthetic medieval video game but
split tears (angel), 2024
deth, 2024
Cyberdreams recognizes his work contains many popular themes and elements such as skeletons, admitting “I can’t stop being drawn or get enough of it.”
The esoteric 3D library built across Bryce 3D, Nomad Sculpt, Daz3d, Keyshot, and Cinema 4D enables Cyberdreams to reuse characters and elements across artworks.
Cyberdreams simulates a surrealist journey through a modern Inferno, offering followers a surreal experience. But like Dante, is Cyberdreams dabbling too deeply with darkness?
untitled, 2024
Ascensión, 2024. Acrylic on Paper
Published October 9, 2024
William Darkdrac is a Barcelona-based artist who strikes the world with his paintings of light. His body of work reflects a profound transformation from art “dominated by demonic figures intensely exploring fears and inner darkness” to art turning towards “brighter aesthetics focusing on representing beings of light and ethereal landscapes.”
Darkdac claims, “This change in approach marks not only an artistic evolution but also a reflection on the duality of the dark and the bright, the earthly and the spiritual.”
The discussion of spirituality among artists is too easily objectified. Curators and critics dissect the artwork attempting to uncover the artist’s secrets, and as those secrets are told the artwork becomes a cipher of the artist.
But is this cipher truthful? Must the artist connect his inner spirituality with his work? Is it dangerous to assume he does automatically? All such questions we must answer together.
The vibrant and luminous aesthetic of Darkdrac’s work is owed to the aerograph. Perfecting a technique where light seems to emanate from beneath the composition. The characters in these surreal scenes seem to inhabit the realm of this invisible light source.
Often depicting mystical creatures and faceless light-beings, we wonder what type of spirituality this is, but we dare not speculate.
Psensibil is an artist, designer, and live visual producer based in Lexington, KY. He has spent the last decade making a name with his manic visuals and involvement in the music scene. Psensibil is deeply involved with the “Expansion Music Festival,” curating an ever-evolving stream of visual art.
Brimming with dark psychedelia, his work buzzes with an unsettling energy that makes you wonder, what’s going on in Kentucky?
The interplay of minimalistic composition with dizzying repetitions and uncanny subjects have an out-of-body effect at times.
Relics of Regression, Photoshop, 2022
Heavily influenced by the tenets of plunderphonics, involving sampling of music to construct new tracks, Psensibil is like a necromancing pirate. He applies a visual approach to this remixing which he calls “borrowing pixels,” often from historical imagery.
Themes of introspection, self-perception, and impermanence create conceptual threads for this American artist. A patchwork of textural environments teasing viewers with familiarity but smudging the line between reality and a fever dream.
Psensibil’s surreal and multi-dimensional work is part of a larger movement of artists in middle America. Many American artists are creating works challenging the notions of video and digital media, while also dealing with subjects such as
introspection and self-consciousness. Americans in general are struggling to find their identity, form relationships, and sift through the new digital landscape. Distorted imagery,
pirated material, and digital boundary pushing is an approach to coping with the American landscape. Although this genre of artists may be overlooked by mainstream
galleries and institutions, there is a robust wave of visual artists who have learned to promote themselves, pushing glitch and mind-bending works such as these.
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