Melancholy dipped in sunshine by Kalle Hellzen

May 23, 2025 by Arseny Vesnin in 2025, Art, Illustration, Netherlands, Portfolios

Kalle Hellzen discovered his passion for art in his 40th. For him, being colourblind is not a barrier to creating awe-inspiring art. His condition enhances reds, dims blues and blurs mid-spectrum colours, which is why he's making incredible contrast in his work. But it's his process itself which is fascinating.

Calais begins with oil and acrylic paintings, creating original bases from which to work. He then works digitally with tools like Photoshop to generate print compositions. He often captures subjects in pause, falling, or contemplation, exploring the human experience of enduring and navigating life's challenges. Combining traditional printing, painting, varnishing, and pouring layers of gloss acrylic medium, he crafts one-of-a-kind original prints, describing his work as melancholy dipped in sunshine.

@artbykallehellzen

Spring Coolers by Moreno Schweikle

May 20, 2025 by Arseny Vesnin in 2025, Art, Design, Germany

Spring Coolers by Moreno Schweikle, launched in 2021, still feels fresh, especially in today's workplace design and post-pandemic social context. As part of Balenciaga’s Art in Stores project, Schweikle’s work stands out by subtly challenging the emphasis on pure function in industrial design.

At first glance, a water cooler might seem like an unlikely muse unless you are a fan of pre-COVID office small talks. But Schweikle transforms this routine object into a sculptural reinterpretation, blending it with neoclassical elements that recall historic city fountains. Spring Coolers changes the game by making designs about beauty as well as usefulness in the workplace.

By turning "grabbing water" into a social event, Schweikle transforms the cooler into a modern meeting place—an open space where people can talk freely. In Balenciaga’s Art in Stores project, Spring Coolers is notable for its subtle insight and cultural importance, showing that even simple objects can hold significance.
Created in 2021, this work feels especially relevant today.

Francisco Ratti

May 12, 2025 by Arseny Vesnin in 2025, Art, Argentina, Digital Art, Portfolios

“My artistic practice develops around the different possible ways of creating images, dialoguing with tradition and art history from a current perspective. I am interested in constructing an image permeable to the present and reality that establishes an explicit dialogue with the digital image. I address traditional painting about new media and ways of looking at and translating reality. A question underlies this work:
How do we look at a painting, and how do we look at a screen?”

— Francisco Ratti

Francisco Ratti grew up amidst Patagonia's dry winds and vast open spaces, where he first discovered his connection to painting. He later earned his Bachelor's degree and now teaches painting as a professor of visual arts at the Faculty of Arts, National University of La Plata. Based in La Plata, where he lives and works, Ratti's artistic practice explores the concept of surfaces, opening up thoughtful dialogues between the digital and analogue realms.

Ratti paints from a place of contradiction and doubt, where every colour, form, and gesture interrogates itself. For him, uncertainty is not a weakness but a generative force—an insistence that gradually sharpens into clarity. His work emerges from internal battles, where buried images resurface, dissolve, and reconfigure. Ratti sees disorientation as essential; getting lost becomes a pathway to recognition.

In the suspended space between dawn and dusk, his painting becomes both wound and river — a site of confrontation, transformation, and fleeting wholeness.

SPACES by Grant Yun

April 30, 2025 by Arseny Vesnin in 2025, Art, Portfolios, South Korea, NFT Art

Grant Riven Yun is a Korean-American digital artist known on the NFT scene for his minimalist “Neo-Precisionist” style, capturing quiet moments in American suburbia and landscapes. Balancing life as a medical student, breakdancer and NFT OG, Yun blends nostalgia and precision in digital scenes inspired by artists like Hopper and Sheeler. His work has been exhibited internationally and featured in collaborations with Moma, Sotheby’s auctions, and NFT platforms, providing a fresh perspective on the beauty of the everyday.

“SPACES, Grant Yun’s latest body of work, thoughtfully investigates the profound transformations in our built environments driven by technological innovation, automation, and shifting labor paradigms. Created over several years, Yun’s vector-based illustrations reflect critically upon how exponential advances in artificial intelligence, remote work, digitization, and data infrastructure have reshaped the relationships between humanity, productivity, and physical space.”

SPACES is a series of 20 artworks. Each is a 1/1 NFT edition with an accompanying 3 + 2 AP print, with print edition 1 available to the NFT holder at cost. They are available via 24hr auctions (Ξ0.1 reserves) on fellowship.xyz, starting at 1pm ET on Apr 30th.

Learn more

Ballpoint pen art by Castro Adefisayo

April 29, 2025 by Arseny Vesnin in 2025, Art, Illustration, Nigeria, NFT Art, Portfolios

Castro Adefisayo is a talented artist based in Nigeria, celebrated for his incredible ability to craft stunning portraits using only a ballpoint pen. His artwork showcases the diverse beauty of humanity, capturing the essence of individuals across various genders, ethnicities, ages, and socio-cultural backgrounds.

Through meticulous attention to detail and a unique technique, Castro brings his subjects to life on the canvas, inviting viewers to appreciate the intricate stories and emotions that define each person he portrays. His work highlights the aesthetic charm of human figures and conveys a powerful message about the universal dignity and worth of every individual.

Follow up artist

Curly Bahar

April 22, 2025 by Arseny Vesnin in 2025, Art, Iran, NFT Art, Portfolios

Curly B or Bahar is a young artist from Teheran finishing her Masters in Arts. Her confident, angular brush strokes give the painting a raw, expressive energy. There's a sense of fragmentation, but it's intentional—almost like emotional cubism.

She may just started (assuming the artist career) pouring oil on canvas but the use of light feels dramatic, theatrical even it directs your focus almost subconsciously.

One also need spend some time watching her inks getting stronger in a sketchbook pages she shared on OBJKT as NFTs. Really impressive strokes catching the characters.

Follow up artist

City Pop by Hiroshi Nagai

April 17, 2025 by Arseny Vesnin in 2025, Art, Illustration, Lifestyle, Japan, Portfolios

Hiroshi Nagai (b. 1947) is a Japanese artist known for his vibrant, nostalgic illustrations that capture the dreamy essence of summer. Inspired by the 1970s and ’80s pop culture, his work often features palm trees, swimming pools, and sleek architecture under bright blue skies.

His signature style became iconic during the rise of Japan’s City Pop music scene, especially through album covers like Eiichi Ohtaki’s A Long Vacation. Blending clean lines, bold colours, and a calm, minimalist aesthetic, Nagai creates timeless scenes that feel both familiar and surreal.

@hiroshipenguinjoe

𝗛𝗲𝘆𝟰𝗿𝗼 solo exhibition 𝗙𝗔𝗦𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 2024.8/17 at Excube Japan

Heyshiro - Painting in Whispers of Light

April 13, 2025 by Arseny Vesnin in 2025, Art, Japan, Portfolios

Heyshiro’s approach to acrylic is unlike anyone else’s. Instead of bold, heavy strokes, he builds up his paintings slowly—thin, watery washes layered over faint sketches of colour. The effect isn’t just an image; it’s an atmosphere, a depth that feels almost luminous like the light is coming from within the canvas itself.

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His recent portraits are quiet but powerful. They start fragile, almost tentative, before sharpening into clarity. The surface doesn’t feel painted so much as breathed onto—soft, delicate, like fog on glass. Then, at the very end, he anchors it all with faint pencil lines, just enough to pull that dreamlike quality back into reality.

Heyshiro doesn’t just paint figures. He finds them, layer by layer, through light and shadow, working at a pace that feels more like meditation than art-making.

@hey4ro