By Jonathan Shih
At first glance, it looks like a foggy window. But look again, it’s a painting.
German artist Jochen Mühlenbrink is known for his hyper-realistic trompe-l’œil works that mimic condensation and blur our view like a memory just out of reach. His pieces don’t just fool the eye, they tap into something deeper. That childlike urge to draw on a fogged-up window. That dreamy space between what we see and what we feel.
Follow @jochenmuehlenbrink for more illusionary magic.
By Jonathan Shih
Andy Goldsworthy is a British Land Art artist known for his ephemeral works made from natural materials found on site. Since the late 1970s, he has created ice sculptures by fusing icicles with snow, water, and even the warmth of his hands. These delicate geometric forms interact with light and melt naturally, often lasting only hours or days. Photography is essential to his practice, capturing each work at its most vital moment, as Goldsworthy views natural decay and disappearance as integral to the artwork itself.
©️ andygoldsworthystudio.com
By Jonathan Shih
Mariusz Lewandowski was a Polish surrealist painter born in 1960 in Działdowo, northeastern Poland. He became known for haunting oil paintings filled with symbolic figures, vast dreamlike landscapes, and apocalyptic moods drawn from his inner world and the natural surroundings of Warmia and Masury. Lewandowski deliberately refused to explain his work, offering only titles and leaving meaning entirely to the viewer, believing art was strongest when discovered personally.
From 2017 onward, his paintings reached a wider audience through album covers for metal bands such as Bell Witch, eventually appearing on dozens of releases, including projects linked to Sony Music Entertainment. His imagery also crossed into skate culture through a limited collaboration with Zero Skateboards in 2021. Lewandowski passed away in July 2022, leaving behind a body of work defined by technical mastery, layered symbolism, and a lasting commitment to mystery.
© lewandowski.art
By Jonathan Shih
Remedios Varo was a central figure in Surrealism and Latin American fantastic art, and an essential presence in the Mexican art scene of the mid-20th century.
Born in Catalonia, Varo was part of a group of European artists who had close ties to Surrealism before settling in Mexico City. During the 1940s and 1950s, the city became an important center for abstract and fantastic art, shaped through salons, informal gatherings, and galleries that encouraged discussion and exchange. Notably, the meetings held at the apartment Varo shared with poet Benjamin Péret brought together figures such as Leonora Carrington, Alice Rahon, Wolfgang Paalen, and photographers Kati and José Horna. During this period, and until her death in 1963, Varo produced her most significant works.
By Jonathan Shih
Released with Windows XP in 2001, the default wallpapers were selected to feel optimistic, legible, and broadly familiar. While XP included a range of images, the most iconic was Bliss, a real photograph taken in 1996 by American photographer Charles O’Rear and licensed by Microsoft. The wallpapers favored idealized landscapes and calm natural scenes, using saturated color and simple compositions that aligned with XP’s visual identity. Seen daily by hundreds of millions of users worldwide, their cultural significance emerged less from artistic intent than from constant repetition, making them some of the most widely viewed images of the early internet era.
By Jonathan Shih
Chema Madoz is a Spanish photographer who transforms everyday objects into quietly surreal images, almost always rendered in black and white. Working without digital manipulation, he constructs physical scenes that turn the familiar into visual riddles: a cloud confined to a box, pencils reshaped into a ladder, or glass that seems to hold frozen waves. His photographs rely on simplicity, precision, and metaphor rather than spectacle, inviting viewers to pause and rethink what they are seeing. Often linked to the spirit of Surrealism, his work echoes the poetic logic of René Magritte and the conceptual wit of Marcel Duchamp, yet remains distinctly his own—less about shock and more about subtle, enduring wonder.
📸 @chemamadozphotographer [IG]
By Jonathan Shih At first glance, it looks like a foggy window. But look again, it’s a painting. German artist Jochen Mühlenbrink is known f...
