Justin Richel's "Sweets"

Hannah introduced me to Justin Richel's gouche paintings tonight as we both use cakes as subject matter. I love the intricate details and the piles and piles of towering pastries. Any artist that manages to combine cakes and a globe in mass quantities requires an instantaneous blog post.


Justin Richel, Tower, 2008

From his website:
"In the midst of an entirely barren and empty "landscape", void of anything other than a multitude of sugar coated inhabitants. The many shapes and sizes, parts and pieces of a greater whole come together to construct towering mountains, pillars of sugary strength and the destructive forces of confectionery whirlwinds and tsunamis. A flawed yet functional infrastructure, A conglomerate society of multi-colored temptations, vying for the same hierarchical position at the top of the heap.

These paintings represent our relationship with one another in a society in which success is measured largely by one’s ability to consume. The “sweets” are representative and are essentially a replacement or stand-in for the “figure”. I attempt to portray the fragility and precariousness of our situation through these works."


Precarious, 2008


Globe, 2009


Globe, (Detail), 2009

Justin has an etsy shop where I also discovered his fondness for birds! I can't believe Hannah withheld this information/artist for so long.


Love Birds (Stack)