An invisible sculpture created by Italian artist Salvatore Garau recently acquired by a private collector who paid a whopping 15,000 euros for it during an auction.

If you’re one of those people who just can’t understand how someone can pay large sums of money for digital assets like video game skins, accessories or increasingly popular non-fungible assets (NFTs), then the sale of Salvatore Garau’s immaterial sculpture is really going to do a number on your brain. Titled “I am” the invisible work of art basically represents a void, a technically empty space that is actually occupied by the energy of the sculpture. Sound like something you’d be interested in? No? Well, it’s too late anyway, as someone has already snatched it up by paying 12 thousand euros (15 thousand with auction rights) earlier this month.

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A Japanese skeleton enthusiast recently got his five minutes of online fame after posting photos of an impressive chicken skeleton he managed to put together out of the bones of a rotisserie chicken he ate.

Mr. Kudo, a Japanese man who dreams of transforming his home into a museum-of-sorts filled with all sorts of animal skeletons, managed to wow millions of Twitter users with his latest creation – an almost perfect chicken skeleton assembled out of the bones of a rotisserie he himself gorged on. On April 28th, he took to Twitter to post before and after photos of a roasted chicken he had bought at a discount from a supermarket in Akita, Kanagawa Prefecture, a few weeks prior. The preserved chicken skeleton, showcased on the same disposable platter that came with the roasted dish, blew everyone away, and for good reason, it looked better than the specimens you see in most museums.

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A talented Japanese artist uses airbrushes and classic brushes to transform generic plastic figurines of popular anime characters into custom works of art.

The mysterious artist, who goes by MA Man on social media, specializes in taking commercially available figurines of popular anime series from series like Dragon Ball or JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure and giving them the custom treatment and turning them into awe-inspiring artworks. Ma Man uses both airbrushing and classic painting techniques to emphasize the figurine’s features, like their muscles or the creases of their clothes to make them look as cool and detailed as possible.

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When it comes to hyperrealistic airbrushed portraits, you’ll have a tough time finding better works than those of South Carolina artist Dru Blair. His amazing paintings are virtually indistinguishable from photos.

Dru Blair first picked up the airbrush while working on his Master’s degree at the University of South Carolina, and spent several summers after that painting T-shirts in Myrtle Beach. Later, he worked as a freelance illustrator for several ad agencies and painted many novel covers, before developing an interest in techniques like photorealism, trompe l’oeil illusionism, faux finishing, and color theory. Today, he creates some of the most realistic airbrush portraits and teaches the secrets of the trade to other interested artists at his art school, aptly named School of Realism.

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A man has spent the first 100 days of 2021 livestreaming 24/7 from a locked room in Los Angeles, but he plans to stay there for the rest of the year, or even longer, if he gets the right financial incentive.

34-year-old Tim C Inzana has been locked in a shed since the start of the year, and he has no intention of coming out anytime soon. The Los Angeles artist he hopes to spend at least a whole year isolated like this, and then sell his livestream in a custom frame as an unusual piece of art. Right now, he is streaming for free on Twitch, but plans to find people willing to shell out $5 million and keep him locked for a whopping 5 years. He has also offered to stay isolated for 1o consecutive years, if someone agrees to pay him $10 million for the effort.

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Anastasia, a talented artist from the Ukraine, creates ball-jointed dolls so realistic-looking that you’d be forgiven for mistaking them for real, live girls.

The artist, who goes by “Elsyn” on Instagram, spends a lot of time making sure that every little detail on her amazing dolls is perfect. From the color of their skin, to the nails on their delicate fingers or the contour of their eyes and lips, they look nothing like the dolls you usually see on toy store shelves. But then again, these are not toys. For collectors, they are almost like living beings, and most of the people who get them end up naming them and making customs clothes for them as well.

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Barcelona-based stylist and hairdresser Alexis Ferrer has spent years developing a technique that allows him to digitally print colorful design onto human hair.

Alexis Ferrer started experimenting with hair printing in 2012, after being asked by haircare brand Wella Professionals to interpret a collection at that year’s International Trend Vision Awards. The aim was to “was to innovate with a technique not usually used in hairdressing,” and photographic printing on hair seemed like the perfect way to graphically tell a story. Ferrer’s first attempt managed to get a lot of attention in the world of fashion, and he has been working on refining hair printing techniques ever since.

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When it comes ultra-realistic pencil drawings, you’d have a hard time finding someone better than Italian industrial designer turned artist Alessandro Paglia.

Having studying design at Politecnico di Milano, Alessandro Paglia managed to secure a job at 3M, working its first  international Design Center for five years. He then moved to a light design company and then to a brand design agency, but eventually realized that it wasn’t what he wanted to do in life. He had always been more fascinated by the artistic side of design, and his career was steering him further away from that. So one day Alessandro quit his job and decided to focus exclusively on artistic drawings, and we’re glad he did, because otherwise we would have probably never gazed upon his shiny masterpieces.

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People Driving along Oregon Route 18 in the autumn months or early December are treated to a unique view that is sure to brighten their day – a giant smiley face looking back at them from forest-covered hillside.

Located at roughly mile 25 on Oregon Route 18, between Willamina and Grand Ronde, the now famous smiley face of Oregon makes its appearance every fall, as the color of the trees that make up its body start to change color. It is about 300 feet in diameter, and consists of two different types of conifers, one that changes color in autumn, and one that remains all year round. It has become a popular landmark in Oregon’s rural Polk County, and should continue to put smiles on people’s faces for the next 30-50 years, until the trees are ready to be harvested.

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A 23-year-old street artist from China has been getting a lot of praise for making use of simple yet intriguing drawing supplies to create some very impressive artworks.

Long Tsai has been trying to make himself known on Chinese social media by posting videos of himself drawing Chinese fantasy and TV series characters on the pavement. The problem is he is just one of the many self-taught artists around the world trying to make a name for themselves, so he decided to do that by using some unconventional tools. Instead of colored chalk or spray paint, he creates his art with a burning log for black and rocks or bricks for every other color.

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Despite being just 13-years-old, Lilith Siow is already one of the most talked-about tattoo artists in Singapore.

Lilith first made international news headlines in 2019, when she attended the Culture Cartel Exhibition, in Singapore, where she showed off her steady hands and ability to work under pressure. The now 13-year-old is the daughter of Joseph Tan of Visual Orgasm Tattoo, a famous tattoo artist in Singapore, with over 20 years of experience under his belt. Joseph asked her if she was interested in tattoos and picking up the skills to do tattoos herself, and when she said yes, he started taking her to the shop with him.

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A talented bento artist from Hiroshima, Japan, has been turning a lot of heads online with their incredibly detailed edible black portraits over a white rice background.

Nori bento is the most common forms of the portable Japanese snack, but one Japanese food artist has managed to turn the simplicity of the classic meal into an impressive art form. Miki Matsuura creates bento portraits so detailed it makes eating them a travesty. She carves the edible black layer so meticulously that the resulting portraits look almost drawn on the white rice with a black pencil, like manga characters. But while the artist posts photos of her art on social media, they aren’t made specifically for people’s entertainment, but as an actual lunch for Miki’s husband.

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Mostafa Khodeir, a talented young artist from Egypt, spends up to two months working on a single one of his ballpoint pen drawing, but the result of his labor is nothing short of awe-inspiring.

The first time that 28-year-old Mostafa Khodeir saw hyper-realistic ballpoint pen drawings, he was speechless, even though, in hindsight, the skill level of the artist was pretty low. He decided to try it for himself, so he started practicing, and after a while he started producing some truly impressive material. Khodeir can spent up to two months on certain drawings, but the result are always impressive.

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Talented French/Russian artist Anna Zhilyaeva has been pushing the boundaries of painting by combining the centuries-old art form with one of the most advanced technologies of our times, virtual reality.

Of all the uses for virtual reality, painting was probably not at the top of your list, and that’s exactly what makes Anna Zhilyaeva’s art so special. Using software like like Tilt-brush, Masterpiece and Anim VR, and a virtual reality headset, she is able to paint three-dimensional artworks often referred to as painted sculptures. She has performed at events all over the world, from the Louvre Museum to various technology and art festivals, and is recognized as a pioneer in the fields of virtual reality and mixed-reality painting.

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Hand-made silk embroidery is a long-standing tradition in Vietnam, but the craft only recently reached its peak, when two artists – an embroider and a painter – decided to combine their skills and found the country’s most successful hand embroidery studio.

XQ Dalat was founded by Hoang Le Xuan, a talented artisan who inherited ancient embroidery techniques from her family, and her husband, painter Vo Van Quan. Together they came up with the concept of embroidered paintings and came up with new techniques to make it a reality. The unprecedented level of realism and detail displayed in the embroidered masterpieces of XQ Dalat catapulted the small family business to national and later, international success. Today, the company employs over 3,000 talented embroiders and caters to clients from all over the world.

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