Ha! These are great! New York-based artist Jonathan Viner paints “computer geeks” from our 70s mainframe past. His solo exhibition, “COMPUTER SCIENCE” is currently being shown March 31 to April 30, 2011 at Sloan Fine Art.

Shortly after his first son was born, artist Jonathan Viner naturally had fatherhood and his own childhood on his mind. As children, Viner and his twin brother spent hours visiting the robotics lab at the New York Institute of Technology, where their father taught and worked. Faded memories of “computer nerds” playing Dungeons and Dragons, sharing ideas, and celebrating on New Year’s Eve came back to him as the artist shuttled between infant care, painting and conversations with artists, critics and enthusiasts over Facebook.

Inspired by the stunning impact these unlikely heroes from his childhood have had on the world, Viner began hunting online for class photos of computer science majors from the 1970’s. Those old photos, mined through Google on an iPad, became the starting point for “COMPUTER SCIENCE.”

 
More after the jump…

 
Bill Cosby has got nothin’ on this guy.

(With thanks to Nerdcore)

 

 
Hunter Jonakin created this wild 80s-style arcade cabinet that allows you to virtually destroy work by the artist, Jeff Koons. It costs twenty-five cents to play. Could this be a giant FU to Koons because he thinks he owns all likenesses of balloon dogs?

 
(via Today and Tomorrow )

 
Well here’s one creative way to recycle your vinyl: Turn them into melted 3D face sculptures. The work entitled “Through The Barricades” is by artists Angelo Bramanti and Giuseppe Siracusa AKA L017. I wonder if the face is of the actual artist who made the record?

L017 prefers the use of waste materials and recycled objects.

L017 uses any type of media without any discrimination between the various methods of expression:painting, sculpture, installation, graphic work that live togheter and often get in touch, mingle together

.

 
(via Mister Honk)

 

 
Two lovely Nick Cave portraits by Scottish artist John Malcolm.

(via Cherrybombed)

 
Before Brian De Palma became a narrative film maker he made documentaries. Among them is The Responsive Eye, which chronicles the Museum Of Modern Art’s 1965 exhibition of op-art. Curated by William Seitz, this was the first significant exhibit of optical art synchronous with and in some cases arising out of the early days of psychedelic culture. It’s amusing to watch the stuffed shirts within the art world attempt to describe what they are looking at in conventional terms or resorting to psychological mumbo jumbo without ever mentioning mescaline or LSD.

Artists featured in the show include the well-known Victor Vasarely and Josef Albers as well as the sensational and underappreciated Paul Feeley, collective work by Equipo 57, a group of Spanish artists, and Bridget Riley, among others.”

Josef Albers taught at Black Mountain College in the mid-1930s and while it’s doubtful that he took drugs it is well-known that his students were traveling to Mexico to participate in peyote eating ceremonies. Victor Vaserly may not have taken any psychedelics but his artwork appeared on everything from blacklight posters to blotter acid. Bridget Riley’s op art designs were bootlegged and began appearing as prints on trendy clothing in Carnaby Street boutiques.
 

Bridget Riley
 
The Responsive Eye exhibit was the beginning of the mainstreaming of op-art and suddenly it was appearing everywhere, in magazine ads, tv commercials, fashion and countless posters taped to the walls of hippie crashpads.
 

 
Here’s a 1989 documentary/ impressionistic portrait of DM patron saint Brian Eno that I’d never seen previously entitled Imaginary Landscapes: A Meditative Portrait. Featuring some great in-studio interviews and lots of er, imagery to go along with the ambient soundscapes and charmingly wobbly VHS artifacts, this has some nice moments. Besides, previously unseen/ unheard Eno documents are always welcome here.
 

 
Courtesy once more of Network Awesome

 
Indonesian artist Agan Harahap, who was responsible for the viral images of superheros photoshopped into iconic historical images, has a new project: “Happy Religion.” Harahap photoshops his own face onto Christ’s from well-known classic paintings like Caravaggio’s “The Supper at Emmaus” and “The Entombment of Christ.”

Is it true that Jesus’ face was bearded and long haired, or black and frizzy hair, or maybe even bald, clean-shaven and slanted eyes. For me, it would be much more elegant if I learn to believe in my religion personally and learn to live in harmony with others rather than question the ‘little things’ that could be fatal for the content of my faith and relationship with audiences.

And when each individual can look at religion as a ‘humanist and liquid’ form, I believe the tensions and friction that cause wars and discrimination because of religion will not happen again in future lives.

 
View more of Agan Harahap’s “Happy Religion.”

(via Nerdcore )

 
Antonello Branca’s 1967 documentary What’s Happening? is an exciting look at New York City at a pivotal time when poets and painters were prophets revolutionizing art and pop culture forever. Featuring Allen Ginsberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Fred Mogubgub, Andy Warhol, Marie Benois, Robert Rauschenberg, Leon Kraushar and Gregory Corso.

The Manhattan street montages and music provide an additional burst of energy..
 

 
Whoa! Some serious homage to Mr. Dalí.

Update: Tattoo by Vic Back. 

(via EPICponyz)