Crystal Morey uses clay to build figurative sculptures of humans encased in animals. She uses gesture, texture, and subdued colors to create intimate objects that capture the mood of psychological, environmental, and cultural states. The animals Morey uses are either extinct or endangered due to human impact. Conceptually, the work focuses on environmental issues, and visually, the pieces reference totems. I enjoy the mysterious, emotive, and unique qualities of the strikingly beautiful sculptures.

From the artist’s statement: I am interested in the intellectual, emotional and primal relationship between humans and their environment. My understanding of [man's] role in the environment has changed. I once saw humans as being under the umbrella of “nature,” subservient to natural happening. I now realize humans are the largest variable in the changing of our planet’s ecological and environmental outcome. We are living in an era of what has been called a “great acceleration,” and in the past one hundred years, humans have developed and changed the planet in a very drastic way. Through hunting, deforestation, ocean acidification, gene manipulation, industrial agriculture, and mountaintop removal, we are now the driving force behind environmental change. Today every human development has a reaction we can see and these actions are causing havoc, leading us to an unsustainable environment.

These are the ideas I keep in my mind when I am making sculpture. I am interested in the effects these difficult situations have on the human psyche and how we respond to them. I try to show the stresses in our cohabitation through making sculptures of humans, animals, the environment and the delicate dependencies we share. My creative research plays a distinct role in the concepts behind my work. I am interested in learning about animals with stressed habitats due to human interaction. I am sensitive to looking for creatures that we as humans can relate to, giving us a stronger sense of our relationship to the earth. I am also intrigued in the way other cultures, past and present, relate in their ecosystems and how I can incorporate these ideas of their nature and culture into my work. In addition to my cultural and ecological artistic research I am interested in looking at creation, ancestral, and destruction stories from other places and cultures. I strive to create reinterpretations of these stories that are more relevant to the contemporary narrative I am trying to convey while also looking to relate an idea with empathy, beauty and emotion.

Visit artist's site: crystalmorey.com

The photographs in Jaejin Hwang’s recent projects are quiet and calm and depict natural moments. His pictures reflect a sense of everyday surroundings and an authentic representation of our simple interactions with the world around us. When I read in an interview that the concept of his series, Asleep, is inspired by The Smiths’ song of the same name, I was intrigued. The artist says he wanted to express the “ambiguous distinction between the death and falling asleep” and “an invisible power behind natural moments.” He also states, “I believe that intangible things always surround us, and if we capture very natural moments, we can magnify this” (source). The resulting photographs make me think of summer daydreams.

Visit artist's site: cargocollective.com/jaejinhwang

I love these collages of found images by Shaun Kardinal. They remind me of the work of Ben Giles (and some of M.C. Escher); however, Kardinal’s pieces are made of images taken from Google searches and friends’ Facebook and Instagram feeds. Another aspect of the work that stands out is their mode of display. Kardinal feels strongly about making cheap art, free as often as possible, and avoiding making “another precious thing for sale.” The Flying Formation images were presented digitally, exhibited on the artist’s Instagram one evening last month.

From a statement on the artist’s website: I chose my Instagram feed as the right exhibition space, and would, as a sort of durational performance, post the images over the course of two hours during Seattle’s First Thursday Art Walk. Following contemporary standards, I encouraged people to check it out with a Facebook event, but excluded any telling information and images.

When the evening came, I got myself setup at a favorite bar where, lit blue by iPhone and Macbook, I posted an image. Every ten minutes, I composed another—using Instagram’s filters and editor to finish each piece. People engaged in the set actively as I posted. In my home feed, the images mixed with shots of other work, tangible work, lining the walls of proper art spaces. I drank two whiskey-gingers and ate a plate of fries with garlic aioli. When I wrapped things up with the final title image, I closed my computer and put away my phone. Still alone at the bar, I felt newly connected to my art and community, rejuvenated and altogether satisfied with a successful project.

Visit artist's site: shaunkardinal.com

Of all the animal photography I see, there’s very little that focuses on food production. And if you introduced to me a photography series saying that it exposes how animals are raised and prepared for food, I would immediately brace myself for gruesome images of animals being mistreated or dying prolonged, painful deaths. However, Henk Wildschut’s series about the food industry in the Netherlands presents something surprisingly different. While working on this impressively well-researched and -executed project, Wildschut’s own preconceptions about food production were challenged as well. Many of the images in the series are accompanied by such interesting and informative text explaining what makes the treatment of animals for food in the Netherlands quite different from that in, say, the US.

From the artist’s statement: Few subjects generate as much discussion as the subject of food. Such discussion is increasingly marked by suspicion and pessimism about how our food is produced. Two years ago, when I was asked to make an in-depth study of the subject of Food for de RijksMuseum in Amsterdam, I was full of preconceptions about the food industry. I saw it as dishonest, unhealthy and unethical. More than that, it was contributing to the decline of our planet, unlike in the good old days, and I felt that the magic word ‘organic’ was going to solve everything. So when I embarked on this project, my first impulsive reaction was to bring to light all the misunderstandings about food once and for all.

Visit artist's site: henkwildschut.com

I’m a fan of mysterious photographs, packed with symbolism, whose exact meaning eludes me. This used to be my favorite way of working, and I can really appreciate it in this series by French artist Juliette Bates. I love the juicy, velvety blacks and creamy whites; the simple, exact compositions; and the consistency and repetition of colors and textures in these images, as well as the perfect clarity of the glass domes photographed. This series, which makes me think of newer ParkeHarrisons work, could have me looking for days.

Visit artist's site: juliettebates.com